Away in a manger, no crib for a bed

I just keep laughing to myself thinking about a conversation I overheard at the Thanksgiving dinner table. We have some young cousins. Mom to young cousins shared that they'd just bought the Little People Nativity Set for the kids. Well, Cousin is playing with the Little People Baby Jesus and realizes that He is laying in the hay in a barn. So she instructs Mom to go get her Little People Castle Set

so "Baby Jesus can have somewhere nice to sleep." Of course we all laughed at this cute story of the imagination of a little girl. But, the more I think about it, the more profound it seems to me.

She looked at Jesus, next to the animals, in a bed of hay, and she looked at her castle, with its nice big pink bed with pillows and blankets, and she saw the obvious disparity. She recognized immediately that Jesus deserved a better bed. I think she saw something that we've seen so many times that we've just started to ignore it. "Yeah, yeah, Jesus was born in a stable. No, he didn't have any clothes. Or a real bed. What's that? Well...yeah...He was a King."

Jesus humbled Himself. I'm sure she wouldn't use those words, but that's what she saw. Can you even see that anymore? Can you look beyond the familiar story and see the reality? The nativity scene should shock us every time we see it. We should sense the inequality of the King of the Universe sleeping in a feeding trough. And we should understand that Jesus absolutely willingly chose to be there. Chose to be born that way. Chose to live life here. Chose to die for us. Chose to raise to new life and give us the right to become children of God. This should blow our minds. Every time.

Indian Morning

I'm sitting on the front porch in that gigantic wooden rocker that Great Grandpa once sat in. The ends of the arms have been chewed on by Caesar, who is barking at me from behind the iron bars of his cement cage. He has been barking at anything and everything since at least 4 a.m. when the roosters started crowing. Don't they know it's not daylight at 4 a.m.? I can only assume that he's been barking at the four or five small neon yellow, blue, and green birds in the cage by the porch. What kind of birds are they? Not sure.

I look around the neighborhood at the painted cement buildings. They look old, but I'm thinking maybe it's just the wear and tear that makes relatively new buildings seem old. There's lots of color. A boy across the street is on top of the roof unstringing some lights that were up for the festival season. I've noticed several displays around the mall and airport with Christmas trees---an ode, I assume, to the fact that the Indian festival season coincides with the Western festival season. Strange.

I hear the hum of traffic in the distance. Traffic isn't even an adequate word for what happens on the roads. Even in China I didn't see quite the dance of cars and bicycles and dogs and people and cows (You can't possibly imagine how many cows there are. Everywhere. And goats, too.) and rickshaws and giant trucks and chickens and taxis. The horns beep constantly...not like the polite American way to curse someone, but more like "Hey, I'm about to pass you, please don't run me over." It's amazing to watch the moving in and out of "lanes" with such ease (side note: they drive on the left side of the road here), passing cars with only inches to spare, and rarely an accident. My favorite driver during our visit is the most aggressive one. He drives the fastest---maybe because it's his own car---and passes the most. It's both terrifying and thrilling---which is why I only sat in the front seat once.

I come back to the present. I notice that on this small side street people are walking by the front gate---part of the wall that encloses the whole house and courtyard. There goes a bicycle with its bell "horn". Ooo, then a rickshaw. A scooter. More people. I look up at a house two rows over. Several girls have been going up and down on the roof, hanging out clothes to dry, and they have some sort of fire going---maybe they're cooking something? The smoke is going up...people seem to be burning something everywhere. I guess that's part of the distinct smell that people talk about. In our house I smell the gas for the stove, and breakfast cooking. An egg dish of some sort.

I hear a bird chirping...or is it more like squawking? It's that funny-looking black bird with the long bright orange beak that was on our windowsill this morning. He's sitting on top of the wall, about level with the top of the trees---are those palm trees? They have some sort of fruit growing at the top. Maybe my strange bird friend is mimicking the music I hear in the distance. Or maybe he's responding to the people talking in the kitchen. I wish I could understand their language. Its sounds don't even make sense to my brain...I haven't heard anything like them before. I keep asking people, "Can you write that down for me?" Maybe if I can see it, I can make sense of it.

Fortunately, most people we are around speak English. But still, I long to know some word---to make some connection with the people. I ask the young lady who helps around the house how to say "thank you"---she's actually Nepalese, so I'm not sure if I'll learn Hindi or Nepali. But, when I ask, she doesn't know what in the world I'm saying, so Mom comes out to see what I need, and tells me, "It's okay, she understands 'thank you.'" Rats.

So, a day in another world begins. I forgot how interesting, and yet, exhausting, exploring another culture can be. Which I think accounts for why by 8 p.m. every night we CANNOT keep our eyes open. That, and the fact that we are ten and a half hours ahead of eastern standard time and our bodies are confused. Breakfast time. I close my journal and ask God for the strength to eat (it's been a struggle for this trip). Ask Him to lead me today---how can I serve? How can I love? Here goes...

Needy

Casey and I just spent a week and a half in India. I spent the first couple days of that sick, begging God for help, and reciting 1 John so I wouldn't go crazy  imagining that I would not get better (there's one good reason to memorize Scripture!).

I thought I was going to go "do something", but as it turns out, I don't think I've ever felt more needy and helpless as I did in a foreign country, with people I hardly knew, unable to eat, and feeling generally miserable. My friend Tim told me, as I questioned why I was even there, that God was growing my dependence on Him. Wow. Yes.

Humbled? Uh, yeah. Willingly? Um...right...Good thing God is bigger, right?

Sunday was our first night back with the family (East Rock, that is). Guess what Tim preached on? Humility. Yay...? I thought, "Really? Okay, God...I'll listen."

Monday was the first day of our first "normal-life-in-America" week, and to help me not go crazy at home by myself, Casey made me a to-do list. The second thing on the list? Read a few chapters in the book Humility. Humility again?? Now things are starting to get comical. Seems God won't let me off the hook with just hearing about humility...He means for me to actually grow...

Monday night was our first time back with our Life Together Group. We talked about...say it with me...HUMILITY! Only a crazy would not be getting the idea now. Seems we're in a season of learning humility. And boy does it hurt. Oh, that I would submit to this and learn joyfully. Y'all pray that I would.

Jesus Humbled Himself

"If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from His love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
but made Himself nothing,
taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
He humbled Himself
and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!
Therefore God has exalted Him to the highest place
and gave Him the Name that is above every name,
that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father."

God has no need. We know that. He didn't need to create us. He didn't need to win us back from slavery to sin. But He chose to. Mind blown.

How did God choose to win us back from slavery and rebellion and death? By sending His perfect Son Jesus to live as a man, completely obedient, even to a death that we deserved. Not just death, but a humiliating and undeserved criminal's death on a cross.

So, Jesus is God.

He willingly humbles Himself by coming to earth.

He not only humbles Himself by coming to a sin-wrecked earth, but He comes in the form of a man.

He not only comes in the form of a man, but as a dependent-on-His-mother-for-life baby!

He not only comes as a baby, but as a baby born into a family of humble means.

He not only comes as to earth as a man, but as a servant of a man. A servant.

He not only comes as a servant man, but while serving, He is completely obedient to the Father. Obedience implies someone is in authority over you. Who could be in authority over God? Yet Jesus submits His will to the Father. What??? Mind BLOWN!!!

He not only obeys, but He obeys to the point of death. Death. The wages of sin is death, but He didn't sin. Why would He die?

He not only obeys to the point of death, but to the point of a humiliating death on a cross. A cross is for criminals. He committed no crime.

Do you see this? Do you?? God, who has NO NEED, humbles Himself to become needy!
Disdained.
Tortured.
Misunderstood.
Unappreciated.
Criminalized.
Killed.

"Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place
and gave Him the Name that is above every name..."

So, when we listen to Philippians 2 and "in humility consider others" better than ourselves, we re-enact Jesus' life. In humility, God the Son considered others. He looked not only to His own interests, but to all of our interests. Each time we choose to humble ourselves, we put Jesus' life on display. It doesn't make sense that God would humble Himself. Especially for rebels. But it is good. So, so good. We must tell this story by living it out. Just like a husband lovingly lays down his life for his wife and so puts Christ and His Bride-Church on display. So, each of us in humility considers others better than ourselves and so puts Christ's incredible submission to and trust in the Father on display.

"Humbles yourselves before the Lord, and He will lift you up." James 4:10

"...For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted." Luke 18:14b