For Wilshire Baptist Church
We spent all of January 2 packing away Christmas. As usual, we assessed some decorations – mostly lights and garland – to see how worn and tired they were. Some went back in boxes for next year, some went in the trash, and a few items were set aside for donations. But after a full day of work, and only a couple of good head bangs on the low “hobbit door” entrance into our attic, we got it all put away until next year.
Everything was accounted for and stored away, except one random Jesus. We put out a lot of nativities this year, and when we put them all back in the box marked “Nativities,” we found we had one extra porcelain Jesus, swaddled and lying in a porcelain manger. All the other nativities had a Jesus, so we’re not sure where this one belongs. We wrapped it in tissue and put it in the box with the other nativities. I suppose we’ll see it next December and once more wonder where it belongs.
Next December? That’s a long time to wait to see Jesus again, especially a random Jesus that doesn’t have a stable or parents or shepherds and kings and sheep and cattle to watch over it. And can Jesus really be considered “random,” regardless of whether he has a stable home or a home in a stable?
As children we are taught that Jesus is with us always, and not just with us but within us. We are the home for Jesus in the world today, and there’s nothing random about that. But in the long span of days between Epiphany and Advent, when we don’t see the Christ child laying in mangers on our mantels and bookshelves, it’s easy to not see Jesus at all. Sure, we talk about him, preach about him and pray to him, but are we really talking about Jesus — God who became human — or are we really just rolling him up into the Holy Trinity along with God and the Holy Spirit?
I’m not sure there is anything wrong with that; I may just be posing questions on a winter afternoon to exercise my mind as I face the new year. Still, it seems like the real Jesus that walked the earth in his day might be the part of the Holy Trinity most relatable to us as we walk the earth in our day. It’s the Jesus who, as a child, hurt and cried and was hungry and got tired and excited and confused and was dependent on others; the Jesus who, as an adult, was frustrated, irritated, confounded and angry. Didn’t he accept and experience the most human of our traits so that we might accept and strive for the most holy of his traits: compassion, empathy, humility, forgiveness, patience, unconditional love?
That’s the Jesus we might want to consider for more than 40 days a year and then put away in the attic.