Matthew 2:1-2 (NIV) –After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.”
It’s that time of year again when our thoughts turn to the Christmas holidays. A time that mentally brings us back to a special trip taken over 2,000 years ago. A trip known by most around the world regardless of what country you live in.
For us the trip into Bethlehem happened on the other side of the world. Even though Mary was heavy with child, she and Joseph made the trip and Bethlehem became the place where Jesus was born.
Living life as a spiritual walk we take the Bible’s teachings and contemplate them. This is to focus on the stories and see them as being alive and active in our lives. We call this a metaphysical description. Which simply means; look beyond the physical.
Once we have a more thorough understanding we now have the wisdom to see any existing parallels. Each story has an underlying theme to tell us something that supports us and gives us hope to get through our own challenges.
The comparison from what once was to the activities happening in our lives today is generally always remarkable to see. As you become aware you hear and see that the situations in your life once happened in someone else’s life too. Circumstances and the people in your story are different, but the underlying themes will be there. Knowing this will give you a greater understanding of life.
During Advent 2022, at Unity of Lake Orion, we will be going on an inward trip to Bethlehem. Using the breakdown of the bible story from Hypatia Hasbrouck in her book titled “The Trip to Bethlehem.”
Her book describes in the story that King Herod represents the ego and egocentric ideas. The star, the light, symbolizes the spiritual realm. The three Wise Men represent wisdom. The wisdom to let go of our ego and keep our minds focused on the spiritual realm, the Star or light of the world, the spiritual realm, heaven.
The angel represents God’s understanding, His grace. God shines His grace upon each of us should we give any thought to His spiritual realm. In return it’s also what He expects us to do for others. The next step brings us to the visualization that the purified soul and a deeper understanding is available to us all. There is no special church service or requirement to receive it. Just be aware of its existence within your conscious mind.
Awareness allows the action of the Holy Ghost to be working in and through us!
From my short breakdown, I hope you can see there’s a lesson for us in the original trip to Bethlehem. Our goal this Christmas is to become more aware of the characters, lands and symbols of the story. It’s interesting to find how they are also playing out in our lives. Once we hear it we can decide if we want to make some changes in ourselves.
After all, we have a New Year (2023) coming. Who are you going to be, what’s next for you? Will you just flip the calendar over to another year or do you want to take the trip and become the best you that you can be?
Additional breaking it all down will go on each Sunday at our 10AM services and I invite you to join us for it and learn more. As the year ends it’s a good time to release the past and make room for the new. It’s a great time to take a good long look at ourselves, our lives, our reactions to life, and make changes.
Know that we can re-birth ourselves into new ideas anytime, but Christmas is the perfect story to get us into gear to actually do it!
Seeing you and yours blessed by the light of the star, gifting you with the renewing of your mind into the greater knowing of God’s spiritual realm.
Many Blessings,
Linda La Croix
Unity Director at Unity of Lake Orion. See her Facebook page, A Spiritual Walk, or website, aspiritualwalk.com, for more uplifting and inspirational insights.