Christmas
December 26, 2015

Scripture Reading: Luke 2:41-52

Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. –Luke 2:41-44

To say that the change from mangers and shepherds and wise men and all to a self-assertive preteen in one liturgical Sunday is abrupt is a gross understatement. But so goes the role of parenting. There are few paradigms shifts of life as monumental as the birth of a child, particularly the first. Ask any parents, even those who have longed and carefully planned for the child.

It is the ultimate challenge of changing the center of one’s life to someone other than self. This tiny, fragile infant is totally dependent upon it caretakers, usually parents, to help it grow and develop in wisdom and truth.

It is the supreme commitment of continuing the species, claiming a place and role in the future of the world.

It is the consummate act of dedicating oneself to the goal of living in a world controlled by love.

Becoming a parent in most instances is the easiest job in the world to get and the hardest to do. In so many ways it mirrors the call of Christ, whose yoke is easy, but whose vision requires our everything.

Prayer: God of Love, whether we come to you with eyes wide open, by accident, or confused and unsure, meld us together as one to be your Body in the establishment of your Kingdom in this world. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized 
Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council 
of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights 
reserved.