The Divine Child Born in Us

O holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel

Merry eighth day of Christmas―I trust the maids are milking and the cattle are lowing.  As you can see my thoughts are still on Christmas being a traditionalist when it comes to that season of the church year.  It is a time to enjoy the Christmas decorations and sing the Christmas carols.

Advent was a time of kenosis, of emptying as I wrote two weeks ago, in preparation for the coming of the Christ Child.  Now the Holy Child of Bethlehem has been born in us once again.  How are we to respond to that gift and live in this world on sin?  How are we to cast out our sin and allow Jesus to enter dwell in us today?

What does it mean that the Christ Child was born in a lowly stable amongst the animals and was laid in a manger? What does it mean that there was no room for Mary and Joseph in the Inn?    I believe that many of us do not recognize that if the Christ Child is truly born in us today, it will be in the places where we don’t expect it and where we don’t recognize it or even want to acknowledge within us.

Don’t expect much from the Christ Child what you will receive―at least at this point.  After all every new baby must be given a great deal.  It is truly in our care and need to be nurtured and loved.  Even though we do not receive much directly we find that love is reborn in us when a child is born to us.  This is as true of the Christ Child as it is with any ordinary baby.  Of course there is no such ting as an ordinary baby; in the eyes of its parents and others each one is a reflection of the God being born in us.

To love and nurture this divine child which is born in us we must nurture those places in which it is born.  We must nurture those places which are not proper for an infant to reside; the stables amongst the animals with the less than nice smells.  These are the places which do not please our egos and those places in us that we find less than acceptable.  There is often no room in the places which are near and dear to us such as the comforts and gratification which we seek and desire so desperately.

However, it is into these lowly places, these stable places, that the divine child is born and offers us an opportunity to love and nurture what we would otherwise neglect, or ignore, or even despise.  These are the places in which the Christ Child comes to us and abides in us and invites us to nurture and embrace.

God bless us everyone; O yes and a Happy New Year,