Reminders come to me on this Christmas Eve that when Love incarnates in this world, it will be homeless and already sought for destruction. The manger for Christ’s birth is a sweet image, but a harsh reality too. The arrival of the Magi was already intercepted by a king who asked them to betray the child. The slaughter of the innocents was already in the making. Forces come out of the woodwork that are afraid of love and want to utterly destroy it before it can grow.

Whatever precious thing that arrives in our heart or our consciousness at this or any time of year, the stories of the season remind us not only to celebrate it but also to begin protecting it with all of the strength and powers. Ancestral, religious, political agendas are threatened by the insert of love as a central power; it upsets everything.

If something has been born in us recently we should look to it like Mary and Joseph did to their child. Signs had already said this birth was coming, then it did, and now the child must be transported to where he will be safe and can grow. Such is our mandate in responsibility to any love and innocence we give birth to. The road after birth  is fraught with threats and complications. We have to be alert and ready, and remember what we are protecting and why. The stories that surround the entrance of the divine child Jesus are actually very personal. They give us a map for how to navigate the terrain of our own archetypal and personal challenges that lay ahead.

Pay attention. The big adventure begins now.