Stirrings
Each Advent season for the past few years, Colleen and I have read aloud, to each other, Gunhild Sehlin’s story, Mary’s Little Donkey and the Escape to Egypt. Mary’s Little Donkey was written in 1962 and translated into English from 1979. We obtained our copy from Lyrebird, a Steiner-inspired shop, just down the street from where we lived in Hobart, Tasmania.
There is an Advent Calendar that follows the story. Reading slowly, we get Mary, Joseph, and the Donkey to Bethlehem by Christmas Eve and then read on to get them safely away to Egypt and home to Nazareth by the start of Lent. It’s a steady journey, undertaken in short stages.
The Little Donkey draws from the drama, conflict, and challenges that emerge, explicitly and implicitly, from the Advent narrative. It is supplemented by speculations – events and characters that perhaps did not happen – or perhaps have been forgotten. A talking donkey is an ideal minor character with an almost fairytale quality – naive, innocent and trusting with a simple faith in the goodness of those who are kind to him. He is a charming focal point for the story.
Lately, I’ve been thinking that it would be wonderful to have something similar to read during Lent – an imagined journey, recounted from the perspective of a “minor” character. But what should we do with a grown-up Jesus engaged on a different journey?
Where Gunhild Sehlin has spun a tale of the altogether loveliness of Mary and the Baby Jesus, what might we make of this different journey, with themes that are complex and confronting – themes that grow out of Jesus’ preaching the path of repentance as “the kingdom of heaven comes near” (Matt. 4:17) – a path that leads to a change of heart?
These questions are now shaping my writing and reflection. I’ll be intrigued to discover where they might lead, and I warmly invite you to join me, as I speculate, over these next few weeks, on the journey from Galilee to Jerusalem and the Cross.
Sunburnt Speculations 
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