I distinctly remember the first time I held each of my kids. For both of them, it was right after delivery. It was so powerful! I gazed into their baby blues, and I was captivated. It was like I was caught in a tractor beam! It was like Star Lord getting zapped onto Yondu’s ship, the Millennium Falcon getting pulled into an Imperial Star Destroyer, and the Enterprise being commandeered by a Klingon Bird of Prey…without all of the evil overtones!
Maybe a tractor beam wasn’t the right metaphor. It was like meeting someone for the first time but feeling like you’ve known them for years. I knew at that moment, I would do anything for them.
It was a mixture of awe, joy, and love. I struggle to explain it, even 21 years later.
Tears welled up in my eyes and the waterworks flowed! Right there in the hospital nursery, I made a commitment to both of them that “I will always be there for you and I will protect you no matter what!” As a parent, I’m sure you’ve already realized, you can’t possibly protect them from everything in this world but It is how I felt in that moment. I still feel that way about them today.
The love of a parent is powerful!
Maybe you’re not a parent, but I’m sure you had one. You know inherently that your parents feel that way about you or if they have passed, they felt that way about you. If you had parents that weren’t kind, I’m sure you had someone who stood in the gap for you and loved you powerfully.
My experience has been that my love for my kids is an unbreakable bond and it shapes who they are and who I am. To have someone in your corner that is willing to go to bat for you regardless of the circumstances is invaluable.
The truth is, some parents express their love to their kids and others, stand at a distance not knowing how to appropriately communicate it to them. Some are broken and damaged, in need of healing and love themselves.
It reminds me of the Nativity Scene that many of us have in our living rooms this time of year. You’ve got Baby Jesus, the parents, a bunch of barn animals, shepherds, some angels and apparently three kings. The truth is, spoiler alert, not all of them were there at the same time. Sorry if I just ruined your Christmas! You can still keep your nativity scene, no need to leave anyone out.
When you look at the multitude of Nativity Scenes out there, Mary and Joseph are depicted in a variety of ways.
Sometimes, they are shown as distant, holy and worshipful of the baby Jesus. They are theologically correct and absent of any kind of emotion. Other nativities depict Joseph with his arm around Mary, close to their baby and they are both looking at Him with awe, joy, and love. The truth is, we each approach this story with our own biases and hang ups.
I sometimes wonder, if the way we approach the birth story of Jesus is indicative of how we were loved or not loved as kids.
It is either a reflection of the love we received or a reaction to the love we desired.
When I read the birth story, I am overwhelmed by the love Mary and Joseph have for their child. Sure, they are aware He is the Savior of the world, at the same time, He’s just Jesus to them.
At the time Mary gives birth to Jesus in a stable, groups of people are looking for Him. After being visited by the Magi, Herod has decided that this newborn is a threat to his empire and wants to find Jesus so that he can eliminate the threat before He becomes a man. Messed up, I know.
At the same time, there are the Magi.
They were Persian priests who dabbled in magic, dream interpretation, philosophy, and astrology. They were definitely wise men, not kings, but maybe not in the way we typically think in the Christmas story. If we were writing the story, we might not include them because of their fascination with the occult and their preoccupation with astrology. Yet, here they are. Studying the stars, looking to their dreams for answers and all of that, led them to Jesus.
These men, we don’t know how many, show up in Bethlehem to find Mary and Joseph’s child, led by a star. Stars, in their culture, often announced the birth of a great leader or person of influence. They fall down at the feet of this baby, and worshipped him by presenting gifts.
Gold, frankincense and myrrh. Gold of course is befitting of a king, frankincense a fragrant aroma indicating His beauty and affect on the world He came to save and myrrh is a spice, perfume and at times an embalming fluid. This spice would be used on Jesus after His death.
So there are the Magi adoring, and the parents of Jesus locking eyes with Jesus, caught in His tractor beams. Jesus lays in His crib surrounded by love, generosity and adoration. Even though a feeding trough was His crib, His reception into this world was beautiful and kind. They didn’t need a castle or a mansion to recieve HIm with love.
More than likely, all of these gifts would be used to help Mary and Joseph fund their trip to Egypt; not a vacation but an escape from Herod’s murderous reign.
I love what Michael Frost says about this part of Jesus’ story.
“Did it ever occur to you that Joseph may have used that gold, frankincense, and myrrh to fund his family’s escape to Egypt; that the refugee Christ-child might have been literally saved by the kindness of strangers?”
Out of love, the Magi warn Mary and Joseph to take a different route home because of Herod. Mary and Joseph, out of love and adoration, would stop at nothing to protect their child. They would sell treasure, endure life on the road and become exiles in a foreign land because of this love.
Is it any wonder that love was such an integral part of Jesus’ life here on earth? He had seen it in action as a child. His parents exemplified it.
At the same time, He was love (1 John 4:8). The advent of Jesus is the arrival of love. At least, it is the first time we would see what the love of God looked like when it was perfected in a person.
As a man, it is wholly appropriate that Jesus, who’s life would be defined by His love of God and His neighbor (Mark 12:30-31) would be surrounded by love and adoration at His birth.
Maybe it comes back to the whole nature vs nurture thing. For Jesus, it was. both. Because Jesus was also God, His nature was love. In His humanity, He was in a loving environment so He also experienced love. He was hard wired to love and this love was encouraged and nourished.
This is a great picture of how love can thrive in our world. Jesus came from heaven to earth. He left perfection for imperfection out of love for us (John 3:16). If we have received love, we need to be love. That means leaving our comfortable spaces to find environments where love is needed. Places where love is not exemplified or modeled.
These spaces are in desperate need of Jesus but they haven’t seen Him in action.
Sure, they are familiar with the name but most of what they have seen is the version of Mary and Joseph where they are at a distance, they are holy and theologically correct but not up close and personal.
They haven’t seen the Jesus of the exiles. The Jesus that goes to the outcast and hurting and sits with them in their pain. The Jesus who is Himself an exile and outcast and longs to make exiles and outcasts of us all through His love. The kind of love that calls us out of our consumerism and misery and into His adoration.
The kind of love that catches us in its tractor beams and alters our perception of reality. A love that arrives and when it does, changes everything for us.
When we are transformed by that love, we will do anything for those in our orbit.
This Christmas, join Jesus in that stable. Be surrounded by love but be love to those who surround you. Become an exile for the exiled. Do so out of love.
Merry Christmas my friend!
Matt
“For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16
mlsnellings 