christmas tree and chai smells intermingle
and both are bettered,
if that were even possible
pungent fresh spicy sweet aromas
greet me as i come to this moment
of longing,
heart wide open,
hoping for a supernatural acquaintance
with him for whom i yearn every moment.
him who i push away in my moments
of deepest need
for him.
my senses of smell and taste, exuberant
as i tell him how much i love
what he made for me!
now i gently cup a little dead leaf
in my touch-sensing palm.
all browns, and a crack breaks
through the leathery loveliness
of life-veins now dry.
its top gathered as a stage-curtain
waiting to reveal the glory
and beauty of One
so deeply desiring of my own affection.
my gaze turns from the created to the One.
i adore him.
o come.
that was a couple of days ago. today, our advent calendar revealed the task to "read a Christmas book." i immediately went searching through joey's too-full shelves in search of one. i know he must have one or two, at least, right? i found one little dumb foam book called jingle, jingle, and then read him the nativity chapter in a bible stories book, hoping to unpack more as i get through the "christmas boxes". but as i sensed God inviting me to rest and read the next chapter of Beautiful Outlaw, to become better-acquainted with this Jesus, i was not expecting a Christmas story! but, on the second page, here is what i read:
No king has ever taken such a humble path. His first step was a staggering descent - the Son of God becomes a son of man:
Let the same mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient. (Philippians 2:5-8 NRSV)
"Humbled himself?"
"Humility" hardly begins to describe the incarnation.
That's like saying it would be a humble thing for you to become a goldfish, to live in the bowl, in a fishy world, trying to help those other fishies become something more like Phoenixes. It boggles the mind. The eternal Son of God, "Light of very Light, Very God of Very God...one substance with the Father," spent nine months developing in Mary's uterus. Jesus passed through her birth canal. He had to learn to walk. The Word of God had to learn to talk. He who calls the stars by name had to learn the names of everything, just as you did. "This is a cup. Can you say cup? Cuuup."
Or did you think baby Jesus came into the world with the vocabulary of Dictionary.com?
For ages upon ages, his generous hand fed every creature on earth; now it is he that has to be fed, spoon-fed, drooling most of it down his chin like every other toddler. The Son of God doesn't even know how to tie his shoes. Someone had to teach him how to tie those sandals John the Baptist said none of us were worthy to untie. "The rabbit goes around the tree and down through the hole...like that. Now you try it." Picture seven-year-old Jesus in the shop out back, learning from Joseph how to use a hammer and a saw. He who hung galaxies in such perfect poise, like a hundred billion mobiles, has to be shown how to nail two boards together.
I take my shoes off. The humility of this is beyond words.
John Eldredge, Beautiful Outlaw
i hope this speaks of christmas to you as it did to me. o come let us adore him, emmanuel, God with us, Jesus.
