She would not have eaten much on the journey to Bethlehem. There were no prenatal vitamins or supplements. I’m sure Joseph would have bought whatever he could, carried whatever he could. But the rations could not have been great. So Jesus was probably not a big baby, not fat with cuddly legs, but probably thin and small.
Mary and Joseph had no one but each other to help in the birth. Neither of them knew what they were doing. They must have been so scared.
I traveled to Bethlehem years ago. There are small rolling hills and strong winds. Shepherds to this day dig caves in which they shelter their animals. There are no wooden stables like the ones we like to depict in manger scenes because the wind is too strong. No simple wooden structure would stay up. No, Jesus was most likely born in a cave dug in the side of one of the small hills, to keep the animals out of the wind. That was why there would be a manger, a feeding trough for the animals. And it was here that Mary laid the child, and wrapped him in bands of cloth, or rags.
This tiny baby was born in the harsh weather without a house or a doctor. Born to young parents who did not know what to do. And this fragile little baby was God. How strange for the All Powerful Maker of the Universe to come to us in this form. We make the scene into a fairy tale, but the reality is that the Christ child was born physically at risk in one of the most violent countries in the world. Why did God chose to be born this way?
When I was in college, I traveled to Russia to work in orphanages. One day, I visited a baby orphanage. The Russian woman who took me told me that it was a sign of trust that I was even taken to the baby orphanage. Not many Americans are allowed to see inside, she said.
I have never forgotten what happened that day.
I went into a room filled with babies. But it was so quiet. Being only in college and not understanding why, I asked the woman why the babies were so quiet. They would moan quietly and rock themselves. The woman explained that they stopped crying when they realized that no one was going to come, so they learned to comfort themselves.
But there was one little baby girl who was crying hard. Her face was all blotchy and red. I was drawn to her crib, rushed over in fact to see what was wrong. I picked her up.
Her face cleared up quickly. She looked at me with these beautiful eyes and gave me a watery smile.
You are the mother, the woman said. Take her.
But I was in college and the organization that I worked for did not allow us to try to adopt. I asked the woman to tell me about this little girl.
She was found in a garbage dumpster two days ago. The woman said. She still thinks that someone might come if she cries.
I left that day and did not go back. No one would take me back. But I still remember the little baby girl and her watery blue eyes and the way she smiled at me.
When my boys were born and they cried at night, I would bolt out of bed with this urgency. What was wrong? What could I do? How could I help?
The cry of an infant is a sign that they need you, that they want to be held, or they just want you to look at them and be with them. It is a sign of the need to be loved.
I want you to think of God in a different way this Christmas. I want you to think of God as The Baby.
I want you to realize that God cries out to YOU.
Many of us pray because we think it will help us, or we want God to help others. We think that God will bring us more peace or understanding. But it is always because of our needs that we pray. We never stop to think that God might want us.
But God chose to become a child tonight. God chose to be born as the most dependent, small, helpless creature on the planet. God chose to need us just as a baby needs its mother, just as a child needs to be held. God chose you and God cries out to you.
When you pray, go to God as you would go to hold a crying baby. Rush to God, without thinking or analyzing or wondering how much time you have: just run to God. God calls out to you. God has designed this creation in such a way that God is crying to you to come and be with him.
Remember the Garden of Eden? Remember how Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? And once they had eaten that fruit, they realized that they were naked and they hid from God. They separated themselves from God first; they did the leaving. And God wandered in the Garden, calling to them…Where are you?
God has been searching for you ever since. The baby cries out to you to come and hold him, come and be with him.
It is strange to think of us holding God. It is strange to think of God wanting to be with us. But God does long for us, yearn for us, cry out for us. The All Powerful One, the Maker of the Universe chose YOU. Not Mother Theresa or your faithful neighbor, but you. Just you. God wants you for exactly who you are.
That little girl in the baby orphanage did not care if I held her or just sat near her or sang or danced. She just wanted me. She just wanted to be with me.
I go up to the third floor chapel at the Cathedral to pray. From the window, I can hear the children of the homeless shelter next door, Community Connections. They are playing on the playground. Some are crying, some are laughing. And I hear the voice of God in their voices.
The baby Jesus wants You, and He cries out to you tonight. He cries to you in the poor who don’t know where they are going to live. He cries to you in the ill and those who are mourning someone who has died. Jesus calls out for you to come to Him, help Him, minister to Him and with Him. When you do anything to the least of these, you do it to me, Jesus said. I came among you as a little baby who needed you. And to this day, God calls out to you. Come back to me, God says. Come home.
