the word made baby

Lord,
You are the WORD…the
Eternal WORD…that
when spoken
speaks
life into being
the cosmos into existence
from nothing.
Nothing at all.

Yet…while being God,
Creator-God by nature,
You chose
Freely
To join us
In the human
Race…
The human journey…
Through time
day by day
hour by hour.

Not only did You choose
To be one
Of us,
You
Chose to become like us
In every respect…
being en-wombed
for nine months
in the body of
an unmarried, pregnant teenage
girl.
Then by coming
into this life through
the blood
and suffering of this girl
who would be Your mother.

While Mary was not the Mother of God,
She
Was certainly the mother of
Emmanuel
The God-man-Who-walks-among-us
The Lamb of God
Who takes on our sins.

And You…
Eternal One that You are…
You
Grew into being a baby
Needing
His mother’s milk…
A baby Whose
Lips puckered in sleep…
Whose mouth opened
To cry
Because the WORD
Had yet to learn words
In the same way
We
All learn them…
by practice
by imitation
out of need
with all the cute mistakes
of baby-talk.

It was You…
The Eternal-WORD-made-into-a-baby
Who taught us
The baby-talk of prayer…
The kind of baby-talk
That moves mountains…
You taught us to pray,
“Abba”
“Father”
“Daddy”

You taught us
That lifting hands to pray
Was more
Than correct form…
Instead…it was what every child
Instinctively knows…
Repeating expectantly words like:
“Pick me up…”
“Daddy, please…now…”

You taught us
That when we correctly assess
Our situation
we find that the Creator-of-All…
is our “Abba”…and…
That we best understand ourselves
when we see ourselves
as His “little children.”
John got this long before
the rest of us did.
For sure.

Seeing
Life and the cosmos
From the viewpoint of the Creator’s-child
Makes
Many things more clear….
not always fun
nor easy
but
more clear.

So, Lord,
You are
The baby Who came
To join us…so that
You
Might free
Us from all
our brokenness
our lifeless lives
our wasted days
and from
death…

Reign in us…
Make our baby-talk
Acceptable in YaHWeH’s sight…
life-giving…
powerful…
sweet words.

Please do this.
Amen.

Jesus...risen...choosing the simple life...

as the newly-resurrected & Ever-Living Messiah,
YaHWeH's Own Son...

Jesus did NOT appear to...

Caiaphas...who'd engineered riots to change the government's mindset re: executing Him

the CROWDS who'd called for His execution only days before

the SOLDIERS who'd executed Him...ironically, His angel appeared to those who guarded the grave... and...THEY fainted from fear rather than face the angel

HOWEVER...

Jesus DID appear to...

those who loved & needed Him...

first to Mary the Magdalene...who needed Him even more than His Own mother did...

then to the others...

Jesus was NOT about using His NEW Eternal Presence to COMPEL ANYTHING from ANYONE...

RATHER His aim was to fan the flame of what was already in the hearts of those who COULD bring themselves to believe-love Him (like what was in Thomas', in Peter's & in Mary's hearts)

SO...living the life of the-resurrected-Jesus-in-me will NOT involve COMPULSION...

it will be a series of "callings"...sometimes even of "calling out"...but ALWAYS of choices offered...not in the "Gentile way", but rather the Jesus-way of saying things like, "IF anyone wishes to follow Me..." or maybe, "May I wash your feet?"

this is a "slow" way of leadership...not the "fast track" syle favored by so many of us...