“For to us a child is born…” (Isaiah 9:6)

Children and Christmas seem to go hand in hand.  Some of my most vivid childhood memories spring from Christmas: attending Advent craft night at our church; waking my little brother from sleep in the middle of Christmas Eve service; giving my mom the ornament I made.  Now as I parent my own children, I look to them to remind me of the mystery of the season.
As I approach Christmas, I often think about the fact that God chose to touch this world as a baby, as a young child.  This image of a God-child, Jesus, touches me in a couple of ways.  First of all, it seems ingenious to me that God would come in this small package.  Few of us can resist babies.  Oh, I know, young parents get weary.  Babies are so much work.  But a smile from a baby, a chubby hand reaching out, pudgy knees scooting on the floor – they are magnetic.  I have seen tall, grown men lean close to play with a laughing baby.  Aunts, cousins, and friends stand in long lines to hold the newborn.  A baby invites us to come close.  God is this irresistible.  God invites us to lean in and to get intimate.
God might have chosen the baby package to get our attention and to change us.  Babies mess with our routine.  Ask any new parent.  With a newborn there is no “my time” anymore.  Sleep is a privilege.  Never again does a parent, a grandparent live without that little life needing attention.  Priorities shift.  The bowling nights, the splurges on Starbucks, all of it is sacrificed for the purchase of diapers.  When the God-child, Jesus, comes into our lives we have some choices to make about routine, commitments, priorities.  “Not my will, but thine,” says the Christian.  This commitment sounds almost like the mother of a two-week-old during a mid-night feeding!
Finally, babies make us think about the vulnerable.  Once I had a baby, I could no longer view children, animals, the poor, the ill – even the earth –  in the same way.  There are so many ways that people with power can bring hurt or life to those with less power.  My own experience of motherhood led me into a season if ministry with urban children and a United Methodist afterschool program in Canton.  I believe that God came to us in the form of a baby as a reminder that God has a special heart for the vulnerable.
Sometimes our focus on children at Christmas can get out of balance – parents take on second jobs just to buy toys; we cart our kids around from Christmas experience to Christmas experience trying to create Christmas moments.  My prayer is that you will meet the Christ-child this season.  The packages and ribbons are fun for a baby to play with.  But mostly the wants attention.  So does God.  I look forward to worshipping with you in December.

Your pastor,

 

Jennifer Olin-Hitt