Vulnerability

Christmas is a season of vulnerability.  At least it is for me.

Three years ago I sat in my living room and watched the tree lights and the Christian and family and fun ornaments on the tree and trusted Emmanuel.  God was with me - as Chuck was not eating, and getting weaker and eventually dying.  For some reason I am more aware of that this year than last.  The grief comes and goes.

An electrician came today and now I have cameras on my driveway.  Crime is up and for other reasons it seems like it is time - for this old widow who lives alone - to have an idea of who is wandering around her yard.  Yes, if I think about it, I do feel vulnerable.

But there is more.  Always more.  I am preparing this afternoon for a Bible study of John 1: 1-18.  And it reminds us that Jesus was the light who came into the world

 

¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.

 ¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.

 

He faced rejection.  He came as a vulnerable baby to an out of the way city of Bethlehem born in a stable in the reign of Herod.  It is a picture of vulnerability.  And we know the rest of the story. Teaching, miracles, cross, crucifixion and YES - resurrection.

And he came so that we might be born again into a new identity - as children of God.  

¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,

¹³who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

That phrase is a phrase of one who is vulnerable - trusting in the unseen presence of God in the midst of the weak and defenseless places in our own lives.  We are called to love which will always make us vulnerable.  Who loves without - at some point - enduring times of suffering?

All of which sounds so sad and so heavy right now as I write this - but for me it is also true.  We are - as we seek to live as followers of Jesus - people who are aware of our vulnerablity.  We cannot control everything as much as we would like.  Instead we become people who pray and trust and love in his name.

All because LOVE was born at Christmas.  Love for us that calls us to love others.  To be vulnerable.

May you be blessed by the God of LOVE whose greatest desire is to be one with you.
May you draw close and know the thrill of God's beating heart against your own.
May this lover God be a listening presence in every word and thought and experience of your existence.
May the fire and passion of God's love for you move you to be 
a compassionate and loving presence to all you meet.
May the God of LOVE be with you.

Amen