Not a Baby Anymore
Do We Worship the Holiday Comforts?by Becky Stephen
It’s easy to adore a baby. But Jesus isn’t a baby anymore.
When I was three years old, I climbed onto my mom’s knee saying “I want to ask Jesus into my heart.” Though she could hardly believe that a toddler understood the gospel, we bowed then and there to the One who still lives in my heart (Eph. 3:17).
Children find faith simple. That’s why Jesus said we have to be like little kids to truly see Him (Mk. 10:15). But we’re not babies anymore. Stuff and sophistication make it hard to see Jesus. And even harder to bow to Him.
At Children’s Sunday school I read scriptures describing people in prayer. I instructed the children to do whatever those people were doing: stand up, lift hands, bow, etc.
When we were all kneeling, with faces to the ground, I asked, “What are you saying to God with your body?”
One kid shouted loudly, “I surrender!”
Exactly! When we bow before God we are surrendering to Him: “God, you own me now.” That’s worship.
God wants to pry away our stuff and sophistication. To push away props that hold up that me-focused world. To encourage us toward the embrace of the grown-up Jesus. To free us to surrender unconditionally to the only One worthy of all we are and have.
That’s worship – a demonstration of what something’s worth. Sunday morning music and nicely spoken prayers are not the true indicators of what we think God is worth. What we value is seen in our choices, words, actions and relationships.
Do we worship a social ideal of a perfectly orchestrated, warm-fuzzy family holiday? A controllable culture-shaped image of a perfectly behaved baby Jesus who, according to one popular carol, doesn’t even cry?
Do we have the courage to examine the gods of gift-giving and stuff (powerful idols of fear, greed, self-centeredness, and all things other than Jesus that motivate a false generosity)? Are we secure enough to uncover idolatrous images of Christmas such as the nuclear family around a table full of food? (What does this image say to orphans and widows, the poor, to those living far from home or who have no home?)
If our Advent activities are just attempts to increase our holiday satisfaction or “make Christmas meaningful,” we’ve failed. Like the birth of Jesus, it’s not an end in itself. This time of focus on Jesus can be the beginning of a new kind of life – a life that shows what God in Christ is really worth.
Advent reminds us to celebrate the God who humbly bowed to become a human baby and to wait for the One who will come again as the firstborn from the dead and ruler of everything (Rev.1:5).
Very soon He will return. Then, reaching out to us with nail-scarred hands, Jesus will show us what we are worth to Him.
Becky Stephen is the director of InterVarsity Link.
Unless otherwise noted, all materials on the urbana.org web site are Copyright InterVarsity Christian Fellowship / USA. All rights reserved.
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