Dear Friends,
When I was child, my parents had a Christmas album by Andy Williams that I enjoyed listening to at Christmas time. My family was not religious, and I was always curious about the meaning of Christmas songs that spoke of the birth of Jesus. One song about Jesus on the Andy Williams album that made me feel sad was “Sweet Little Jesus Boy,” composed by Robert MacGimsey. Here are the lyrics of the first stanza.
Sweet little Jesus boy
They made you be born in a manger
Sweet little holy child
We didn’t know who you were
Didn’t know you’d come to save us Lord
To take our sins away
Our eyes were blind, we could not see
We didn’t know who you were
This song always touched me with a deep sense of longing, a desire I would not been able to name at the time to know who Jesus is. At the same time, it contributed to a growing misconception I had that part of the point of Christmas for Christians was to feel guilty about the fact that Jesus was born in an animal shelter and laid in a food trough rather than born in a palace and raised in luxury. It seemed from the song that perhaps the manger scenes recreated at Christmas time depicted an event worthy of mourning rather than celebration. Now that I know who Jesus is, I understand that Jesus would not have had his birth take place any other way than it did.
Jesus came to the earth as a human baby to be one of us - to experience our lives and to be one with us. He did not come to be worshipped. He did not come to be part of the 1%. He did not come to experience luxury and honor. He came to experience life as an ordinary human being, to feel cold and hunger and loneliness and heartbreak. He does not ask us to mourn his choice of poor parents as if the rich would have been more worthy to welcome him. Instead, he is asking those of us who have privilege and power and comfort to join him in laying these things aside to identify with those with whom he identified and to give honor to those to whom he gave honor.
How can we show honor to the baby laid in an animal’s food trough long years ago? I think Jesus answered this question when he said,
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
May the story of the manger lodge in our hearts this Christmas and always as a call to see the face of God in every person and to honor and care for others as if we were caring for Jesus himself, which in fact, we are.
A prayer for today:
Jesus help me to see you in the faces of those around me. In particular, help me to be in awe of your presence in those who are hurting and in need. And let me also not be afraid to hurt and to need, knowing these things unite me to you.
Love in Christ,
Michelle
