Expect the Unexpected
My husband, three kids, and I have been serving as Maryknoll lay missioners in Tanzania, East Africa for the past two years. I work as a nurse and help coordinate healthcare for children with disabilities. The children and families I work with on a weekly basis live very much on the margins of already impoverished communities. The hospitals and clinics we have access to here are a far-cry from the hospitals I spent 15 years working in back home in the United States, and I spend a good amount of time figuring out how to provide medical care with the very limited resources available. Sometimes we meet with success; sometimes we do not. More often than not, I have great expectations – and the medical system here falls short of them.
This week’s gospel is from Matthew, and it tells us the story of the magi arriving to visit baby Jesus sometime shortly after his birth. We do not know much historically about these “wise-men” – and much of what we have been told about them is simply folklore. (We don’t know there were three of them, we know they were not likely “kings,” and we know they did not arrive on the night of Jesus’ birth, despite all the nativity scenes depicting otherwise. What the gospel relates is that they were magi from the East and that they had been studying prophesies and astronomy in anticipation of the arrival of the new king of the Jews. They traveled a great distance, giving both time and resources toward this endeavor. We are also told they brought with them expensive gifts to offer this new king. I think it suffices to say: the magi had great expectations! Why else would they invest so much time, energy, and money into making this journey and bringing these gifts? I can only imagine their surprise when the light from the star they had been studying and following for so long stopped and stood still over a poor peasant girl (a traveler from out of town, no less) and her newborn son.
After such a long journey to meet this highly anticipated new king, there was no grand feast laid before the magi to welcome them. There were no silk sheets or palace beds in which to rest that night. They came in search of a king and found Him hidden among the poor. It was exactly because of this, though, that King Herod and his scholars and chief priests could not find him. While Herod was likely looking for a king amidst the powerful, wealthy, and influential, the magi followed the star’s light. And in an astonishing act of faith after finding Him, they immediately prostrated themselves before Him and paid Him homage. I imagine the situation they found themselves in fell short of their expectations. I am quite certain they did not imagine the new king of Jews to appear this way. Yet without hesitation, Matthew tells us that they “rejoiced exceedingly.” What incredible faith!
Often, in mission and in life, I find that things fall short of my expectations. Plans do not turn out the way I desire, and the end results often look different than what I want. Some days, it means finding out there is no neurologist in all of Western Tanzania and my student who needs a diagnosis and treatment cannot access the medical care he so desperately needs. Other days, it means finding joy and laughter in a most unexpected situation with a student and her family.
As we begin our own journey into this new year, let us all try to follow the example given to us by the magi from the East. Let us be the wise men and women that follow the light that will take us to meet the Christ child, willing to bring our gifts and treasures to lay before Him. And when we find ourselves being led into unexpected circumstances, perhaps even circumstances very different than what we had prayed and hope for and even expected, let us still humbly kneel before Him and “rejoice exceedingly,” knowing that it is exactly there, in those unexpected places, that we find God.
Photo courtesy of Anna Johnson.