Guest Post: “God With Us”

This is the first post in a series titled, The Spirit of Christmas. Check back each Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Christmas day for more posts in the series. Today’s post is by my friend, Jamie Harper. Jamie and I attended high school together, and reconnected through blogging a few years ago. Enjoy her beautiful post that kicks off this series!

For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? Matthew 25:35-37

The High Becomes Lowly

Thousands of years ago, a baby was born on a cold, dark night in Bethlehem to a virgin woman and her fiance. When they knocked on the door of the lodge, there was no room. All that was left was a place in the stables. They were probably hungry and very tired. The woman was giving birth, and she did so amongst the animals. In entered the greatest of all. Emmanuel – God with us.

He was laid in swaddling cloth in the animals’ feed bowl.

Feeding the Baby King

His mother was pregnant before she was married, and her condition had been not without cost, but she took on the burden of being an out-of-wedlock mother with great joy and full submission.

His dad took the burden of believing that something wildly amazing and unexpected was happening. He took the responsibility of caring for this woman he was pledged to marry and this baby growing in her belly, and he did so acknowledging fully that the child was not his own.

So in the beginning if you will, there were only two willing to clothe and feed the “God with us.” Mary and Joseph.

The Cost and the Gain

For Mary and Joseph, ridicule most certainly came with obedience to God. They did not even fulfill their marriage contract and unite as one until after the birth of the Christ. Perhaps people thought Joseph was crazy for not getting out of the marriage and divorcing this woman who had lain with who exactly? Mary could have easily been outcast by her family – who conceives by the Holy Spirit? She either kept this knowledge to herself or everyone thought she was a liar. We really don’t know how others responded.

But a baby was born and joy came. It came softly while no one was around. Like every new parent does, Mary and Joseph were the first to count His fingers and toes. In the counting, the pain of the nine, long months was washed away. They held Him amazed, and most assuredly they worshiped the King.

They were visited by shepherds, then by kings, received prophecy at temple doors, and treasure in hearts.

It wasn’t exactly easy being the parents of royalty: royalty born poor. Instead, many baby boys lost their lives, while Mary and Joseph ran to Egypt so He could live.

Was it any accident that Joseph would take his baby boy to the land where Joseph of old dwelled, the same Joseph who dreamt Himself a royal but was cast away to live in prison before He would become a royal and feed his brothers out of famine? The same Joseph who proceeded Moses? The Moses who was saved from another king who decreed all baby boys under two must die?

No, the story began again. This time a reversal – a castaway, poor and lowly, who was always King – a King who would feed the poor and hungry, a king who looked like an average man, but performed miracles and spoke truths no man could comprehend. A King who feeds you and me out of our famines.

Will you Feed the King?

When I think about who fed or clothed or visited Jesus when sick or in prison, the list when He walked the earth is short: the ones who served Jesus were the unlikely ones who were poor in spirit and hungered and thirsted for righteousness.

There are few times I’ve seen the face of Jesus. I met him as a black, homeless woman once. A woman with dyed red Katniss braided hair struggling to feed her kids another. He was gloriously beautiful and feeding Him wrecked me and brought me to tears. Because there is something “more than” when I feed Jesus by feeding the hungry all the while knowing that He’s fasting for me in Heaven, as we wait on His return to gather His beloved bride. He fasts because He longs to be with us again, and we feed others to serve Him here – both as we wait on the return of the King.

Sometimes Jesus looks like me, and sometimes He looks like you. Listen as I whisper to your soul:

God is with us. Living in the hearts of believers and dwelling in the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the prisoner. Sometimes Jesus looks like the Christian woman needing a church community, and sometimes Jesus looks like the homeless on the street. Sometimes Jesus is your neighbor, and sometimes, when you are weary, Jesus is you. When we bend down to serve the least of these and wash their feet, we’ve seen the very face of the One who saved you. So keep serving, actively giving love to others shining Love to the King who loved you to birth as a babe and death on a cross.

The High King bent down so that we could draw near, and when we bend down to meet the needs of the least of these, we draw near once again.

How will you feed the High who became lowly, the “God with us,” this Christmas?

 

Jamie blogs at Brown Paper and Strings about God’s grace and the depth, width, and length of His love. You can connect with her on facebook, twitter, or pinterest.

 

 

 

 

photo credit: jeffweese via photopin cc