Trying To Square The Christmas Circle

      When I came down on Christmas morning I caught a quick glimpse of the New York Times sitting on the kitchen table. 

        My first thought was that this was some contemporary artistic rendition of the Nativity story, in which Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt with their newborn baby Jesus to save him from certain death at the hands of Herod, the King of Judea.
        But upon taking a closer at the newspaper I saw that this was in fact a photograph of Sudanese refugees who fled  their homeland to save themselves from certain death at the hands of a violent militia group known as the Rapid Response Forces. 

     I wondered if the Times editorial board purposely chose this photograph for its Christmas Day edition on the hunch that its readers would likely make the same connection that I did. And perhaps to hand their readers the challenge of squaring  how we celebrate Christmas,

...with circling back to that first Christmas, which, if we are to believe what the the Gospel tells us, has much more in common with this image,

...than with any of the things we do to commemorate the birth of Jesus.
        But here's an idea. Supposing we gave ourselves permission to brighten up the dark, cold, winter days to our heart's content with lights, gifts, eating, singing, celebrating with family and friends, and spreading a spirit of joy, while the rest of the year we live the message of Christmas by caring for the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters on the planet.

      If only.