There's Room for Me (Part III)
"God is great," is the cry of the Moslems meant to stir up their deepest reverence and awe, but the Bible's true God is more than great. He is little.
In love God designed the birth of his Son to be noticeably humble and lowly. The Maker of all things who fills the earth shrank down, down, down so small as to become a single egg barely visible to the naked eye dividing and redividing into a fetus and enlarging cell by cell inside a nervous teenager. “God is great,” is the cry of the Moslems meant to stir up their deepest reverence and awe, but the Bible’s true God is more than great. He is little. That stirs up more than my reverence and awe. It stirs up my interest and faith to handle and hold this heavenly one who makes room for me by coming into my world.
Compare the coming of world leaders and dignitaries in our contemporary world, who shield themselves with protective measures of secret service agents and dark tinted, bullet proof car windshields, and do everything possible to keep separate and safe. Christ came humbly and openly, not to keep separate and safe but to mingle with sinners, touch the lowly, and welcome the undesirable – already in the manger.
Back in 1994 two Americans were invited by the Russian Department of Education to teach morals and ethics in Russian prisons, businesses, fire and police stations, and even at a large orphanage. They were also told that they could teach from the perspective of their Christian faith. When the Christmas season approached and it was time for the children at the orphanage to hear the story of Christmas for the first time, they sat on the edges of their stools glued to every word. One of the Americans explained that he had the children cut out some cardboard, paper, and felt to make their own mangers with babies and he was walking among them to see if they needed any help. All went well until he got to the table of Misha, a six-year-old who had just finished his project and had not one, but two babies in the manger.
The American quickly asked for a translator to ask the boy why he had two babies in the manger. Crossing his arms in front of him and looking at his manger, the boy began to repeat the Christmas story very seriously. And for just having heard it for the first time, he related the details quite accurately – until he came to the part where Mary put the baby Jesus in the manger. Then he started to ad lib.
“And when Mary laid the baby in the manger, Jesus looked at me and asked me if I had a place to stay. I told him I have no momma and I have no papa, so I don’t have any place to stay. Then Jesus told me I could stay with him. But I told him I couldn’t because I didn’t have a gift to give him like everybody else did. But I wanted to stay with Jesus so much, so I thought about what I had that maybe I could use for a gift. I thought maybe if I kept him warm, that would be a good gift. So I asked Jesus, ‘If I keep you warm, will that be a good enough gift?’ And Jesus told me, ‘If you keep me warm, that will be the best gift anyone ever gave me.’ So I got into the manger, and then Jesus looked at me and he told me that I could stay with him – for always.”
That’s why the God who loves us and saves us had his Son placed in a manger, because we can see ourselves in that manger, next to Jesus always, and say with confident and joyful faith: there's room for me.
PRAYER: O great God, O little Jesus, you empower your abilities and minimize your attributes - to save me and strengthen me in the true faith. As you make room for me in your kind love, let me make room for you in my decisions, in my behavior, in my quiet little corner of life and in my relationships with others. Amen.