A stinky, smelly, dirty baby. Jesus.

Uhoh, better hide. Now that I'm off of school my mind is ready for some hearty meat spiritually/mentally. That means contemplative blogposts.Don't know how many of them will actually get published... but, hey doesn't matter.

Christmas is in like eight days, and I have to say that I have not felt very excited, joyful, etc. My emotions just aren't lining up like they usually do this time of year. Don't get me wrong, the excitement I get from the lights at night makes me sooooo happy that I want do the Snoopy dance. Christmas parties make me laugh and enjoy life... but I'm not talking just about the season.

I'm talking a little bit more about the reality of my Savior coming to earth. THAT hasn't quite hit me yet. Sometimes Christmas seems a little over-rated to me... I know, that sounds terrible... but to be honest, shouldn't we be thrilled the rest of the year? But. I understand that we're stupid humans and we forgot the realities of life a lot. Just like I am right now. So I thought, I'd post something Christmas-ie... I know you guys are probably overloaded on Christmas, but I kinda wanna hit the meat. Sometimes we get so overloaded on the candy in our stockings that the Christmas turkey doesn't sound good anymore.
I know, weird way to think about it... but I think that's the way we get with Christ sometimes. So I wanna look at the meat of things.

Meaning of Christmas: God. Entering our world as a child.
Too often I think his birth is glorified, so much that we miss the reality of it. This God, entered the world he created, and we messed up. The world which we rant about that our hands have wreaked havoc upon. This world where the cruelty we impose on our fellow humans is something we fall asleep with tears streaking our face---this is the world the God of the universe entered.

He entered this world as an infant, his parents waiting to see if he would take his first gasp of air. The God of the universe, that holds our lungs together, was born, gasping for breath, screaming into our darkness, crying out for life as he experienced oxygen for the 'first' time. He created the molecules that make-up oxygen, yet had to learn how to breathe it just like we do.
When he was born, there was no fanfare. We too often forget that the angels didn't sing to Mary and Joseph. The angels declared a savior to the shepherds. The wisemen probably didn't come till he was a tad older, I've heard three... but I'm no historian.

After birthing a child for the first time, Mary wraps her infant in what she has. "Swaddling clothes" I think is often glorified as well... however, I've always had an image of Mary tearing the bottom of her tunic to wrap her child in. She had nothing else in my mind, but again, I'm no historian. I did go to the trouble of looking up "Swaddling Clothes" and even though wikepedia isn't the most reliable source, I found some interesting information.
It's said that swaddling a child was very common, however it's been known to cause SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) and DDH (Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip) basically it's a chronic dislocation of the hip.... So, I wouldn't be at all surprised if from being swaddled Jesus walked with a limp... it would fit in with the scripture from Isaiah saying;

"For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not."

I am by no means saying this is fact, but I AM saying that it's possible... in fact if you google "Swaddle" there are instructions on how to snuggly wrap your child without dislocating his hip.

So our Lord entered the world, the Lord that could at any moment cease to keep our hearts beating, the Lord that feeds all the animals in the forest was no incapable of taking care of himself. He had to rely on his parents to feed him, clothe him, and wash him.
This BLOWS my mind. He was an infant, yet fully God. Was he aware of it at that time? I don't know... but you have to imagine.. as Mary, it's obvious she believed that this was the Christ. She had SOME inkling. (She DID know.. so stop singing that song please.Kthanx) that the child in her arms was going to rescue them, but I'm not sure she fully understood what that meant. Imagine feeding the infant that you believe to be God incarnate... a little intimidating, no?

But it was also her first child. She had never had a child before, what do you DO with them? "Am I worthy? Am I doing this right?" Probably ran through her mind a thousand times.

The Lord probably wasn't always treated fairly when it came to disicipline. ;) But even as an infant, I don't know... it just blows my mind. He came as a baby.  A smelly, stinky, dirty, baby.