Here are two historical moments, pregnant with anticipation, hope, uncertainty, sorrow, and longing. The birth of a carpenter’s son, with the usual laws of nature disrupted by G-d himself, occurring on a quiet night in an ordinary town. And sacrificial death of that same child, complete with mock coronation, fulfillment of prophecy, and perfectly balanced paradox of a Servant King.
I imagine the universe inhaling, holding its breath in expectation, for each of these events. All of heavens hosts waiting to burst forth to the shepherds as soon as G-d let it be so, and the chill of that dark hour on the cross. When he breathed his last, It is finished, did creation slowly sigh, or silently weep for her King?
John answers a question from my last reflections: How much did Jesus know and when did He know it? Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?”
And, Jesus also gives us the reason for Christmas: For this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. I am here for this very purpose, to take on the Father’s will, to be a guilt offering, to heal you through my very wounds.
Mary bookends the stories, not that she be exalted, but that by this essential human relationship, we remember our Savior’s full humanity, from his birth in a manger, to his death on a cross.
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