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REST assured, no emperor has given an order or issued a decree. But nonetheless, at Christmas, many of us will follow one particular Bible verse as if it were a binding injunction: ‘All went to their home towns’ (Luke 2.3). Our motorways will be choked with traffic, airport arrivals lounges thronging with expectant loved ones; we’ll wait-stamping our feet and hugging our hands on cold railway-station platforms. As for Mary and Joseph, so for us: Christmas is a time of travel and of homecoming.
In the Gospel story, Mary and Joseph return to Bethlehem, Joseph’s home town, to be registered. We travel to be reunited. We travel home.
‘Where are
