xmas eve musings

So if you buy into Christian theology, at some point around 0ce a baby was born who was named Jesus. Of course the later church co-opted a perfectly good pagan holiday, solistice, to celebrate his birth. Liturgically, it makes sense that in the midst of the coldest and darkest days that we should be called upon to contemplate his birth. However, as the Jehovah Witness reminded me, he must have been born sometime in the spring if you want to put the whole story together with any logic. But I digress. The point is that this is the season to consider this baby, this season and ponder its meaning.

This baby came into the world like any other; innocent, frightened, full of wonder and anticipation. Oh how alien he must have felt growing up as he realized how different he was from his parents and the people around him. Why was he here? What is his calling? Perhaps even feeling put upon by everyone's expectations of him. There would have been many dark nights he spent all alone pondering his condition, his place, and wondering what he should do next. We want to think he had it all worked out right from the start but I doubt it. It is the everyman story that gives Christian theology its entre. How could we relate to some supreme being? But how easy it is to listen to or even project outselves into this all to human man who had what must have been a rough life.

That is what I choose to spend tonight thinking about.