I've been drawn into a lot of contemplation about Jesus lately. It is just after Christmas and I frequently enjoy taking time to meditate on the birth of Jesus. This year, I was drawn to a stranger picture of Jesus - being held by Mary and Joseph while they were getting married. In Luke it says that Joseph and Mary were pledged to be married when they went up to Bethlehem. So when they got hitched, there was definitely a baby already in the picture. This is a great challenge to my neat Christian expectations of what our lives "must" look like as Christians - not that we should all run off and have sex and make babies. But that a life following God will look ridiculous and embarrassing in the face of our culture. It would have been so much easier if God had given Mary a nice letter explaining everything to the people of Nazareth, to her family. But no, instead she looks like she had a baby out of wedlock which was even more of a scandal in her day then it is today. A better comparison might be the daughter of a pastor getting pregnant and then claiming she was still a virgin. Who's going to believe her and you know how everybody will be talking! It is crazy to me that this is how God decided Jesus should come into the world. Amid scandal. Suddenly the invitations that God makes on my life don't look so ridiculous any more.
The other thing that has impressed me this season is that our giving of gifts to each other is a lame representation of the gift of Jesus. Here is God giving His son, His most deeply loved son, to live a life of sacrifice, suffering and eventual death. We celebrate by buying little gifts for each other and stuffing our faces with cookies, chocolate, and turkey. I think it is a season of celebration but I also think that our giving to each other is a great representation of how we have watered down our faith and commitment to God. If anything, this should be a season where Christians give radically to those in need because God reached out in our deepest need and gave His very best. Especially when our economy is trashed, we need to be the ones who give radically and sacrificially. To be Christ-like is this indeed.
I'm toying with idea of setting aside another 10% of my income so that when this season comes around, I have an extra $1,200 (yeah, I don't make much) to give away. Wouldn't that be more fun than stressing about gifts to buy for my family? I do really enjoy finding meaningful gifts to give to my family so maybe it doesn't mean abandoning the gift giving, but I think that the majority of the emphasis should be on giving outward. I need to keep wrestling with this.
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