Thanking
Our Camels and Being a Camel! Thanking Our
Camels and Being a Camel! Thanking Our Camels
and Being a Camel!

Thanking Our Camels and Being a Camel!

It’s New Year and for some of us that means resolutions! One of my own resolutions every year is to avoid doing Dry January!  Giving up booze is what Lent is for! Ianua is a Latin word for ‘door’ or ‘gateway’ and Ianus (picture above) was the Roman god of doorways and gateways.  January - the gateway to a new year - is named after Ianus, who, with his two bearded faces, looked both backwards to the year just gone and ahead to the year just beginning.  For millennia, many cultures viewed New Year as a moment for looking in both directions, a threshold of new possibility and an appropriate time to make resolutions that actualise potential and necessary change.  The pagans of Rome made vows to the divinities in January to reform behaviour, keep pledges, pay off debts and renew loyalty to their leaders.  Our own New Year’s resolutions today are usually more secular in character, perhaps loosely made and easily broken verbal deals made with ourselves, rather than solemn and binding pledges to supernatural forces sealed by solemn sacrifice, and often tied to some programme of individual self-improvement rather than the common good.

On Tuesday this week (6th January), Christians celebrated the Epiphany - the Visit of the 3 Wise Men of the East to the infant Jesus in Bethlehem. The Journey of the Magi, which is recounted in Matthew 2, is among the most enduring of images in Western art and literature. There are many themes that flow from this timeless tale and I have published in print and shared on the airwaves some of my thoughts on these in the past (I was startled to discover that one slot with BBC Radio Jersey was five years ago!)  In this Friday’s reflection, then, I consider just one angle on this story in an attempt to tease out a New Year’s resolution that might be of some use to some of us, whether we consider ourselves religious or otherwise. (And talking, as we did above, of people renewing loyalty to leaders, in a week that has seen geopolitics take an alarming turn Stateside, I realise that the angle I am going to write about is probably not the most important theme I could have covered in a tale in which Herod stamps his feet in a tantrum, a bit like a kid in the supermarket pointing to a bar of chocolate and saying “But I want it!” I’ve no intention of attempting to get through USCBP any time soon anyway!)

The Magi were probably scholars from Zoroastrianism or some other wisdom/religious tradition of the East. So on their journey to the Kingdom of Judah they would have travelled across deserts, presumably by camel (as is often portrayed in the artwork). A horse might be great if we want beauty, strength and speed, or a ride down the country lanes of Jersey.  However, while some horses (especially Arabians or Mustangs) are resilient and adaptable enough to survive in deserts, most horses have evolved in a way that makes them less than ideal for desert journeys.  Camels - the famous ships of the desert - are what we need for the wilderness.  Camels set off and, without food, water, reins and directions, can carry on steadily, faithfully, reliably, sticking at their task, crossing the desert, and saving themselves and their rider.

So here’s a question for the weekend: Do we have a camel in our lives? (Right now, I can picture my mother smiling at the way my Dad chews his food and answering in the affirmative!)  Perhaps your camel is deep within, inside your own character, an inner resource that helps you cross the deserts, negotiating the dry, arid spells of your journey through life?  We all need inner resources, interior motivations to keep us surmounting the obstacles and difficulties that are created by ourselves, others or just by the sheer fact of existence in this complicated world. Or perhaps there’s a person in our life who calls out our inner resources, someone who gives us a reason to keep going when the road gets rougher?  The Magi faced plenty of problems caused by people who pretended to be on their side, but also by their own errors. What kept them going, however, on their journey towards the infant, was the camel within them, assisted by the faithful camel outside them.

As we look back with Ianus over the past year, do we recall getting lost in life, like the Magi who also lost their way? The Magi made big mistakes which damaged the lives of others.  Did the star, the light, the vision, the hope and happiness that guided certain phases of our journey last year disappear at times in the clouds of daily living, in disappointments and heartache, in the folly of our own mistakes and the hurt these caused others?  What kept us going? Who kept us going? Who in our lives loves us in spite of everything?  Those who really love us know that there is much more to us than our mistakes and the wrong turns we have taken. Such people are the camels in our lives.  Also, who loves us just because we are there in their life too?  Who loves us for our faithfulness in accompanying them on their journey?   Perhaps we could resolve this year to stay close to our camel(s), to thank them often and to reciprocate.  Perhaps a decent New Year’s resolution is to be a camel for others.