The “Light of the World” in a changing landscape.
What if Jesus had been born in our century, and only a few immigrant farm workers and a baffled reporter recognized him?
Though I’ve spent almost all my life here, I often find my own city unrecognizable.
From the sleepy semi-rural community of my childhood, Surrey, a city near Vncouver, British Columbia, has grown up faster than a teenager having a growth spurt. Vast acres of subdivisions, condos and townhouses have been slapped together as fast as developers can sign over the paperwork and pay the fees. In the meantime, old town centres are left derelict as they wait for grand new projects to be approved.
Change is rampant.
I mourn the loss of giant cedar forests and heritage houses and I lack appreciation for the generic sameness which has taken the place of owner-built and loved homes and farms.
Driving through snarled traffic, down unfamiliar boulevards with missing landmarks and snarled traffic I wonder about the sense of community. With so many newcomers, family structures and supports falter.
Churches, though once central to community life, have faltered too. Their growth has not kept pace.
People from all corners of the world have rushed to our doorstep, and what do we offer them? The parks and malls are nice. A bevy of bylaws to keep up the pretty façade can be annoying. Harsh realities of overcrowded schools and hospitals, gang violence, homelessness, and its twin scourge, drug addiction, threaten to overwhelm government services and law enforcement. These issues are a testament to the growing pains of a city which has almost lost its soul. Resources are limited, and external fixes don’t address the real problems anyway.
I’m sure it’s not just my city.
Almost any urban area with a large population has its share of violence and poverty. Where people congregate, so, too, do social issues.
What if?
Life in Surrey has often made me wonder what it would be like if Jesus had come in our century, to the mess of our modern world, instead of two millenia ago? Would we recognize His presence or would He be ignored? Would His message and life appear relevant to the concerns of the people?
Would Jesus be welcomed in an established middle class church and suburb?
Or would He have made His appearance elsewhere—perhaps at the multicultural crossroads of a struggling urban centre?
My story “Light of the World 2.0” is an alternative history—a “what if” scenario of Jesus’ birth.
The story however, is not just a fantasy. As I face another season of advent here in my chaotic city, I remember that Jesus has come. The question is, how will I make His presence known in the pervading darkness? Perhaps I’ll call that story “Light of the World 3.0.”
Rose Seiler Scott believes that fiction can be a vehicle for telling the truth. She’s wanted to be a writer since fifth grade, but she took a few career detours, including bookkeeping, piano teaching, and being the mother of four. Eventually, family history drew her back to writing and resulted in her first novel, Threaten to Undo Us, which won The Word Award for historical fiction in 2016. Rose lives in Surrey with her husband, Andy, and their two youngest children.
Quite enjoyed your story in Christmas with Hot Apple Cider. The reporter’s reactions to his life circumstances and this very strange break-through situation seemed quite real.
Your inside story helps me to see a part of why this is so . . . you’ve placed the story in a place that you know well. In Petawawa, too, due to increased building and the welcome arrival of both more military and more civilians with the Garrison expansion, traffic, which was already too heavy for the one main thoroughfare to bear, both construction and traffic congestion have increased considerably, though not as snarled as that which you describe.