Good morning…
This Christmas season we pared down to essentials. Immediate family. A handful of favorite ornaments on our ten foot fresh tree. And one nativity, this tiny nativity brought home from a late November yard sale.
Because we were living lighter, we were able to spontaneously adjust when generous friends offered us a getaway to their mountain home on Christmas Eve. On the spur of the moment, we wrapped up and loaded our gifts, we gathered food, drinks, and games, and all six of us (19 years old and up) packed our own single bag. In keeping with the uniqueness of 2020, this was the first Christmas morning we woke up away from home since Steve and I were married in 1987.
To keep focussed on the reason for the season, in my bag I tucked this one palm-sized nativity. I quietly set it out near the fireplace as a personal reminder of the newborn Emmanuel, a name which means “God is with us.” Midway through the trip, I heard, “Mom, look! They have a nativity just like ours.” In laughter, together we noticed this simple symbol of rebirth.
After three awesome nights in the snowy mountains, we stripped the beds, washed the sheets and towels, and put everything back in beautiful order. When I finally went to pack my things, here is what I saw.
“The hand of God, broken by us,” my mind quietly thought. How symbolically perfect. When God laid His skin-wrapped son in the humble manager far far from home, God knew the whole redeeming story. God knew that this tiny infant would eventually say, “This is my body, broken for you.”
Things on earth break. We all know this is true. God, the Father-Son-and-Spirit, knows this inescapable truth too. Yet brokenness does not stop God.
Philippians 2:5-12 in the Easy-to-Read Version is entitled Learn From Christ to Be Unselfish. The passage reads:
In your life together, think the way Christ Jesus thought. He was like God in every way, but he did not think that his being equal with God was something to use for his own benefit. Instead, he gave up everything, even his place with God. He accepted the role of a servant, appearing in human form. During his life as a man, he humbled himself by being fully obedient to God, even when that caused his death—death on a cross. So God raised him up to the most important place and gave him the name that is greater than any other name. God did this so that every person will bow down to honor the name of Jesus. Everyone in heaven, on earth, and under the earth will bow. They will all confess, “Jesus Christ is Lord,” and this will bring glory to God the Father.
Through one broken body, God offers eternal life to every human being. Learning from Christ to be unselfish, might we look for God’s healing power in our own brokenness? Spurred on by the Spirit, may we humbly see broken things (broken bodies, broken relationships, broken bank accounts, broken homes, broken people, broken promises, broken dreams, broken habits) as simply a mysterious means to God’s glorious end.
…Sue…
