THE CHILD IS THE SIGN?
George was having one of those days. First, his car did not start and the mechanic said that it needed an alternator. Second, he didn’t have money for a new alternator and so he would have to take it out of his next paycheck, which he was planning on using to buy his wife something nice for their first Christmas together. Third, when George finally arrived at work, he was told that his position was being eliminated at the end of the year due to the economy. George couldn’t remember ever having a worse day.
So the last thing that George needed on his mile and a half walk home from work was a run in with the two college-aged boys wearing suits. “Jesus loves you,” they told him as a greeting. He tried to ignore them and kept walking, but they were persistent. “Christmas is just around the corner,” they told him. All he could think about was the fact that he just lost his job and would not be able to buy his wife anything for Christmas. Their first Christmas together would be the worst Christmas ever, he thought. One of the boys, the one with too much hair grease in his blonde hair and wrinkles in his suit pants, began to read to him from Isaiah: “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14,” the boy said. “Go away!” George muttered. “God bless you,” they said in unison as they headed off toward a woman walking her two poodles.
What kind of sign is that, George thought to himself: a child? The sign is a child? Somehow it didn’t seem enough of a sign to prove that God loved him. How about letting him keep his job, how about some money for Christmas, how about a new car? George could think of a lot better signs than a child. He walked the rest of the way home in silence, staring at his feet as he walked in the snow.
His wife greeted him at the door. George couldn’t even look at her. How could he tell her that he wouldn’t have a job after December 31? Before he could speak, she took his hand and said to him, “I’m pregnant.” There was joy in her voice. “Pregnant?” he asked. “Yes,” she exclaimed. “I took two tests to be sure, both were positive.”
George began to cry. Two hours later, after he had explained what had happened with the car and with his job, she embraced him and said, “it will be alright.” “How will it be alright?” he asked. “It may not be easy,” she said as she put her hand over her heart. “But I love you and we are going to have a child for us to love and to love us.”
George didn’t think that having a child was proof that everything was going to be ok. Then he remembered the blonde boy with the greasy hair and the wrinkled pants. “Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son,” the boy had said. “The child is a sign,” George said. “What,” his wife asked? “Nothing… nothing,” he muttered. The child is a sign of love, he thought to himself. He looked at his wife. She was beautiful and he knew that he loved her and wanted to have a family. I could really use the job, some money for Christmas, and a new car, he thought. But those items aren’t evidence of love. The child is a sign, he thought over and over.
George never contemplated the possibility that the prophet Isaiah had given his community hope by pointing to a child who was be called Immanuel, meaning “God with us,” and that the hope helped inspire Isaiah’s community to make it through some pretty hard times. George never pondered about how the Christian community, in trying to show the world the love of God, saw in Isaiah’s words of hope a glimpse of the one through whom they experienced grace, the one named Jesus. George never thought about the likelihood that God is constantly putting someone in our path, sometimes even a child, to show us the transforming power of love. But one day, the following September, George held a child in his arms, and with the biggest smile that could fit on his face, said to his wife, “The child is the sign.”
PRAYER
Loving God, out of love you created us. Your love is unconditional.
Jesus told us that we should love you with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. Jesus even told us to love our enemies.
But we get so caught up with everything else, like school or work or daily tasks, that we lose sight of love. Often times, we take our frustrations out on those most dear to us: our children, our parents, our spouse, and our brothers and sisters. Instead of loving our enemies, we demonize them. We don’t really get to know people, but yet we criticize them, including our neighbors, our boss, our employees, our co-workers, our political leaders, and all who think and believe differently than we do.
Forgive us we pray. In this Christmas season, give to us a sign of the power of your love. Inspire us to vision a world where love is more powerful than hate, more powerful than political divisions, and more powerful than religious dogma.
We pray for children: for infants dependent upon moms and dads to care for them, for kids and youth struggling to feel loved in a culture where strings are always attached, for children in poverty, for children who struggle with health issues, for children who have been abused, and for children of all ages for whom Christmas is a lonely season.
Help us to act in love toward all who we come into contact with, until the world we envision and the world we live in are one in the same. In the name of Jesus, whom we call the Christ, whose love is stronger than death, whose birth is truly a sign of the love of God. Amen.
Rev. David Stackpole
No comments:
Post a Comment