Rachel weeping
Christmas celebrations often focus on sentimentality with attempts to recapture childhood innocence and wonder at all things magical. So to be plunged into a heart-rending description of the inconsolable rawness of a mother's grief in the second chapter of Stephen Cottrell's book Walking Backwards to Christmas is painful. This book is my rather slow Advent reading this year. In the chapter called 'Rachel', Stephen Cottrell puts himself in the shoes of one of the mothers whose child was slaughtered in Bethlehem after Jesus' birth, according to Matthew's account: "When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah: 'A voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation, Rachel weeping for her chil...
