Seeking Hope for Restoration

Michelle Hamel considers a way to imagine time with the Holy Family when the peace of Nazareth doesn’t fit what you’re living through. 

A couple of months ago, (or maybe even a bit longer since time just feels like it's flying by!), I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Abiding Together. Sister Miriam James Heidland was talking about using our imaginations to place ourselves in the Holy Family's House in Nazareth. Imagine spending time with the Holy family and consider what that interaction would look and sound like: maybe a conversation with Mary or watching Jesus working with Saint Joseph in their workshop.  

And while that sounded peaceful, I can't say that it felt right for me. Peace isn't the word that jumps into my mind when I think of some of the hard things that I navigate in my own family. So imagining interacting with the Holy Family in their home in Nazareth left me feeling unconnected and that I just didn't fit in there. 

I kept coming back to Sister Miriam's meditation idea over the next couple of weeks. At some point, I thought about how the Holy Family didn't just live all of their quiet, peaceful years in Nazareth. They also spent several years living in Egypt to protect Jesus from King Herod.  

Escape to a Strange Land 

When they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt. He stayed there until the death of Herod, that what the Lord had said through the prophet might be fulfilled, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” (Matthew 2:13-15) 

Mary and Joseph found themselves living in a faraway place without any of their familiar comforts. They left in a hurry, fearing for their beloved Son's life, so what they would have had time to pack would have been minimal. They left their familiar environment. In Egypt, the Holy Family lived without physical and emotional connection to their family and friends. They lived without their usual faith community or place of worship. And they had to create a temporary life in Egypt without knowing exactly how temporary it would be. 

Relating to Being Uprooted 

Some of us may be facing the challenge of being physically uprooted from our environment because of a move to a new home or even a new part of the country. But more of us can relate to the emotional uprooting that happens when something significant changes our everyday lives. A diagnosis, loss of a job, fracture in a family relationship, or death of a loved one, to name a few, can all leave us feeling that we've been stranded in a strange land. Since life is often messy and we live in a fallen world, maybe you can relate better at this moment to the Holy Family living in exile, trying to create a new normal in a place they didn't expect to be. 

For me, it definitely feels more fitting and comforting to imagine myself with the Holy Family during their time in Egypt. It's a comfort to know that Mary also had to navigate through hard, unexpected circumstances and love and care for her family with what God provided, even when His plan contained details and a timeline that wasn't what she imagined. I can imagine how hard it was to adjust to daily living in a foreign country, the concern she had as she encouraged Saint Joseph as he found ways to make a living to support his little family, and the love she poured out to Jesus as she created a home and tried to find community in the midst of all the uncertainty. 

Mary's perfect trust in God regardless of her circumstances is always worth pondering, and that perfect trust is worth asking for the grace to do ourselves, in the midst of our own challenges that life throws our way — especially those crosses that are not quickly or easily rectified.  

Imagine sitting with Mary in Egypt and pouring out all of your fears over the broken details in your life right now, knowing that she understands living in a difficult situation filled with a lot of unknowns. Asking her how to be patient in the waiting and how to trust when it feels like things will never be normal or OK again. Asking her how to love and care for our spouse and children in the midst of hard circumstances.  

Most of all, we can ask for the gift of hope as we wait with expectation of how God will restore what has been lost.  

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Copyright 2025 Michelle Hamel
Images: Canva