An Honest Holiday Season

During this holiday season, we tend to go back to the story of Jesus’ birth and focus on the nature of the incarnation, Immanuel or God with us. When reading the story in Luke chapter 2 we find not only the story of the birth of Christ but also the story of when Joseph and Mary presented Jesus in the temple 8 days after his birth in order to consecrate him to the Lord. Here we find Simeon, who had been promised to see the Messiah before he died, blessing the child Jesus and giving Mary a piece of parenting advice along with it. Simeon tells Mary that this child that she just miraculously gave birth to will also be the one to break her heart. But in this, the child will force her and everyone else in the world to be honest with themselves. Luke 2: 33-35 reads (the Message): “This child marks both the failure and the recovery of many in Israel, A figure misunderstood and contradicted, the pain of a sword-thrust through you but the rejection will force honesty, as God reveals who they really are.”

This passage makes me think about our holiday time with our families, especially our children. Do our children force honesty on us as parents? When our children show themselves to be only concerned with what presents they receive on Christmas morning, does this reveal our inability to value people more than things? Later on when Jesus tells us that unless we are like little children we will not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, does this force us to think that our behaviors as parents, as Christians have become too adult-like?

I’ve always wondered, especially after having children of my own, what was going through Mary’s mind while all of this was happening. Scripture tells us that she would treasure these things in her heart. I wonder if Mary became so honest with herself that it was this same honesty that would not allow her to abandon her son, God’s son, when he was dying on the cross.


Other Posts You Might Like:

STAND - Laurie Templeton

With Spiritual Eyes - Edy Tercero

You Never Know - Don Compton

When Night Has Fallen - Nic Dunbar

Fit In, Find Faith, Function Faithfully - Beau Davis

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