“Flee to Egypt”
It is strange and sad but nonetheless true: whereas home should be the place where you find safety, sometimes you have to flee to another place—even a strange and foreign place—to find it.
It is strange and sad but nonetheless true: sometimes our own family or our own community family or our own faith family can prove dangerous or manipulative or even abusive and when that happens we have to flee, we have to find shelter and protection where we can.
O Lord, help us to be the kind of families at home or in our communities or in our churches that provide affirmation, nurture, growth, protection, and safety to all our family members; help us to foster an atmosphere and a reality in which the members of our family can live, love, thrive, and be safe.
O Lord, forgive us when we by our actions or our inactions or by our feelings or our lack of feelings make our home feel unsafe, insecure, or unhealthy for anyone.
And, O Lord, when it is best that we flee, help us to do so with great faith and boldness, ready to find safety and protection in the most surprising places and in the most surprising people.
Amen.
“Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him’” (Matthew 2:13).
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