Babies are the best thing ever...they are a wonder! But, there are those other times when they are a load!
And this is why I am puzzled as to why God would make his entrance into the world as a baby?! Reliant, meek, drooling, crying, and needing his divine diaper changed.
This God/man baby is a complete departure from the God we know of in the 1000s of years history prior to the 1st century. The God of the Old Testament.
Who is...
- The brooding God of creation thinking the universe into existence.
- The angry God of the flood regretting he had made mankind.
- The judge and jury God who rained fire from heaven upon Sodom.
- The avenging God who sent waves of plagues to free his people.
- The dangerous God of Mt Sinai who couldn't be approached at risk of death.
- The God of the Old Testament was anything BUT humble, meek and dependent.
But no, he entered as an embryo the size of a poppy seed - from the size of a poppy seed, to a blueberry, to an avocado and so on until the day he made his entrance, squinting, gasping for breath, and desperate to find his mother's breast.
Let's read about his entrance into the world:
At that time the Roman emperor, Augustus, decreed that a census should be taken throughout the Roman Empire. 2 (This was the first census taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.) 3 All returned to their own ancestral towns to register for this census. 4 And because Joseph was a descendant of King David, he had to go to Bethlehem in Judea, David's ancient home. He traveled there from the village of Nazareth in Galilee. 5 He took with him Mary, to whom he was engaged, who was now expecting a child. 6 And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. 7 She gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no lodging available for them. Luke 2: 1- 7
This is the Divine entrance to the world. Being swaddled.
This is the hypostatic union is the mysterious joining of the divine and the human in the one person of Jesus.
This is God in the flesh - An insecure swaddled infant crying, cooing, eating, peeing and pooping.
This was God and this is befuddling! This is confusing! This is crazy! Why? Why was he an ordinary baby?
Why did God become an ordinary baby?
1. To better relate to relate to us.
He was better able to understand our own lives as humans - how fragile, and weak we really are.
Why did God become an ordinary baby?
2. To be approachable.
A God who became so small could only be mercy and love. - St. Therese of Lisieux
He wants us to have confidence in His love and to be fearless in approaching Him. To know that He is lovable, that He is gentle.
3. To remind us that he came to give us new life.
The ultimate show and tell - like this I want you to become born again!
Those theories are all undoubtedly true or have elements of truth to them. But there is another idea that absolutely captivates my imagination. That motivates me. That inspires me.
Why did God become an ordinary baby?
- To show us how the power of God would transform the world.
- To represent how heaven meets earth.
- To represent his upside-down kingdom: where humility is power.
- To show us that the power of God will transform the world through unexpectedly small things and through common ordinary people.
A swaddled baby says - this is how God works. Poppy seeds become powerhouses. The meek inherit the earth.
Just 8 days after his birth this contrast was in full view... Luke 2:34-35
Listen to what his parents were told as Jesus was taken to his circumcision:
Then Simeon blessed them, and he said to Mary, the baby's mother, ""This child is destined to cause many in Israel to fall, and many others to rise. He has been sent as a sign from God, but many will oppose him. As a result, the deepest thoughts of many hearts will be revealed. And a sword will pierce your very soul.""
The power of a baby on MANY!
This baby from a working class family, living under the cloud of a suspicious birth his whole life, fleeing danger and living as a refugee in his early days, and later considered insane by his siblings. This little boy would transformed every single thing about human culture and bring heaven to earth.
This is how God works. The power of the divine delivered in small, insignificant ways.
And that';s the point.
Heaven meets earth in the ordinary.
Miracles happen in the commonplace.
The power of God will transform the world through unexpectedly small things and common ordinary people.
It won't surprise you that this became a theme in Jesus teaching:
The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.
The meek and the poor in spirit will inherit the earth.
You want to be great you must become a servant of all.
To enter the kingdom of God you must become like a child.
And this theme it was picked up by NT writers in the years following Jesus death.
Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world's eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important.1 Cor 1:26-29
The point? This baby was the first in the line of the nobodies of the Kingdom. He paved the way for the fragile people, the foolish people, the broken people, the nothings of society. The ordinary. To become extraordinary, and live in such a way that heaven intersects earth wherever they walk.
You, ordinary person, is where heaven meets earth.
Stop trying to make your grand entrance into this world.
Stop trying to be more than you are.
Stop trying to impress.
Stop trying to be perfect. Just stop.
Stop trying to accumulate the titles and praise and notoriety.
Just simply be a child of God.
Love always
Serve simply
Live meekly
Be childlike
In your little, broken, halting ways represent the power of God.
You are ordinary by birth but extraordinary by destiny And through you, child of God, he will do miracles, ;he will change lives, he will leave a legacy.
No heroes needed. Just you, like him. Dependent. And oh so powerful.