Some thoughts on process this Christmas

“It is a deep, slow process for a reason.”

These words were sent to me by a dear friend at the beginning of this month and, as words often do, they settled in my soul and began to weave their magic. I have come back to them many times this month and these words are words for my current season.

You see, I am working on discerning a path forward, something I didn’t expect but it seems the right road for the moment. The way forward is murky, I can just see enough to make the next step, I can’t see the whole route, and definitely not the end of the journey.

It’s a deep, slow process for a reason.

If I’m honest, I’m not thrilled with deep and slow. I’d like my answers now please. I’d like to know the path ahead and all the possible pitfalls along the way, how else can I be prepared?

And current culture doesn’t help much either with our online access. There is an immediacy that drives us. We can buy what we need – now. We can check the news – now. Why hasn’t my friend replied – now?

And yet I find my Father, is more interested in the journey than immediate answers. I find that he is more interested in deep and slow.

As we head into Christmas, I have been thinking about how that story takes place over a season, a period of months. But in our culture Christmas is one day.

We conveniently gloss over the fact that a pregnancy takes 9 months; and we condense the journey of the Magi from a number of weeks into a short journey across the church stage.

Christmas was a process; the arrival of Jesus was deep and slow. He was slowly ‘knit together in his mother’s womb’.

Christmas was a journey. Mary journeyed to see Elizabeth when she heard the news that she was going to be a mother. Mary and Joseph travelled from Nazareth to Bethlehem. The shepherds took a short journey from a field nearby to find the child, and the Magi took their long journey. These journeys took time. Christmas unfolds over months not one day.

It’s a deep, slow process for a reason.

I am wondering if you, too, are in the midst of a deep, slow process? Is it an eagerly anticipated event like Mary awaiting the birth of her son? Is it a long ponderous journey, wondering if you’ve read the signs right like the Magi? Is it a season of exile and disconnection, like the time in Egypt when Mary and Joseph fled with Jesus to escape Herod?

It’s a deep, slow process for a reason.

Do those words resonate with you too?

You see, no matter how much I wish the process would speed up, it hasn’t. No matter how much I wish I could get more clarity it eludes me. And sometimes (often) answers aren’t immediately accessible on google as I travel this journey of life.

Even Jesus had to grow from baby, to toddler, to child, to teenager, to man. We find a glimpse into his long slow process in Luke’s gospel.

“And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.” (Luke 2:40 NIV)

As I look at this sentence about Jesus I wonder if maybe deep and slow is more about forming us than giving us answers. I wonder if deep and slow makes us stronger, wiser, and more in step with God. I wonder if the process is more about growth than we realise.

It’s a deep, slow process for a reason.