Good morning…
One thing my 87 year old mom has loved over the years is collecting and displaying nativity sets every Advent season. Yesterday, we began the process of locating and arranging throughout the house a few of these unique creations.
To tell you the truth, the experience was less than smooth and sacred. It was hard to find exactly what we were looking for in the closet of old boxes. My mom wasn’t sure which nativities she wanted to set up where. Even the thought of deciding was exhausting. My dad and I tried to help, but were unable to read my mom’s uncertain mind. We muddled through the mix of emotions together, doing what we could, trusting that was enough for the overwhelming moment.
Up in the middle of the night, nestled on the couch in my parent’s Ohio villa, my mind now drifts to the last time our Sunday afternoon class met beneath our back porch. We read aloud a quote from Rachel Held Evans found on pages 177-178 in How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith by Mariann Budde.
“Jesus didn’t just ‘come to die,'” wrote Rachel. “Jesus came to live – to teach, to heal, to tell stories, to turn over tables, to touch people who weren’t supposed to be touched and eat with people who weren’t supposed to be eaten with. To break bread, to pour wine, to wash feet, to face temptation, to tick off the authorities, to fulfill Scripture, to announce the start of a brand-new kingdom, to show us what the kingdom is like, to love his enemies to the point of death at their hands, and to beat death by rising from the grave.”
This being human is hard, uncertain, overwhelming. What to set up where? Even the thought of deciding is exhausting. Still, Jesus muddled through the mix of human emotions, doing what he could do, trusting it was enough. Jesus came to earth to live, not just to die and rise. He was born in the manger to show us how to live and love, bravely.
As we anticipate the birth of God wrapped in infant skin, might we come to the manger to learn to live and love differently? Together, we can learn to muddle through all of life’s imperfect moments, loving bravely with God and each other.
Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen (1 Corinthians 13:7-8a, PHILLIPS).
…Sue…
P.S. Today I plan to fly home amid a wintery mess, and I hope to see you at the Service of Hope, held tonight at 6:30 pm in the Northside Church chapel.
“This season is filled with bright lights, merry greetings, and lots of laughs,” reads the description of the service. “Yet, for many, it is also filled with an empty seat at the table, grief, and pain. We invite all who seek the light of Christ and the hope that comes with it to join us for this sacred time to worship together, with prayer, lament, and hearing a word of hope.”
