I’m sitting at the kitchen table with a one-eared camel. He is guarded by three wisemen, two whom were once beheaded and have been re-glued. The shepherd has lost his feet and the angel looks battle-weary. The donkey and cow’s chipped edges have been filled in with marker. Joseph, Mary, and Jesus are in the center, and only they remain whole.
It is the first week of Advent and my heart is vulnerable. We said good-bye to our precious dog a few days back—the dog who helped raised our little boys to be tender-hearted and responsible young men. I’m reflecting back on a year of aches, both heart and body, our own and those of others.
And I’m identifying with the fragile nativity before me.
I, too, have been dropped and carried, cracked and re-glued. I am humbled. I am hopeful. I watch my Savior.
“But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’” (1 Corinthians 1:27-31 ESV)
I am in Christ Jesus, and I fall on my knees before him. He is all I have to boast in.
“O holy night! The stars are brightly shining. It is the night of the dear Savior’s birth;
Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.
A thrill of hope the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn;
Fall on your knees, oh, hear the angel voices! O night divine, o night when Christ was born!”
I am thankful for my broken nativity. In it, and in my heart, Jesus is whole.
Hope and Be.Longing
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