Going Home Another Way
Week 4 – Home Another Way
Three Magi on the Way to Bethlehem, by Hans Thoma
God-With-Us
With the birth of Jesus, everything we thought we knew about God changes. God isn’t “up there” in heaven, watching us from a distance. God is with us. And that changes everything.
“It was God-With-Us. Not the God-Up-There somewhere who answers our prayers by lifting us out of our lives, but the God who comes to us in the midst of them – however far from home we are, however less than ideal our circumstances, however much or little our lives reflect the Christmas cards we send. This is where God is born, just there, in any cradle we will offer him, on any pile of straw we will pat together with our hands.”1
I often feel that I have to bring my best self to God. But the story of Jesus’ birth reminds us that God seems willing to meet us wherever we are! Even if our lives don’t reflect the Christmas card messages we send, even if we didn’t follow through on our Advent plans, or if our Christmas day was not the special occasion we were determined to make it be. God was born in less than picture-perfect circumstances and is willing to show up wherever we’re willing to make time for the encounter.
For Reflection
Just for today, can you bring your today-self authentically to God? For me, the day after Christmas is often fraught with feelings of letdown, disappointment that my grand plans didn’t all execute flawlessly, and a gnawing anxiety about the rapidly approaching new year. Being authentic in your prayer to God means showing God your disappointment, tiredness, frustration, anxiety, or whatever else is happening with you today.
Footnotes
- Barbara Brown Taylor, Past Perfection, in Home by Another Way, 24. ↩︎
Falling Up After 50 