There’s those last few weeks right at the end. Your belly is so big, animals and small children take shelter under it from the rain. You feel like a beach ball about to pop, except you can’t draw in enough air to make that an accurate picture. You are very pregnant.
There’s that hour when labor has gone on so long that you don’t remember life outside and can’t think of anything but pain. Why won’t it stop? Why isn’t this over?
There’s that moment when all the teasing and heartburn and nausea and fatigue and pain vanish – a little face, so cute, so perfectly formed. Ten fingers! Ten toes! He cries! He’s breathing! He’s mine – ours. THIS is why it was worth the wait. A whole reservoir of love opens and rushes through you. You are a mom. And he is a dad.
There’s that first smile that squeezes your heart till it wants to burst. The first step that has you cheering louder than you did for the Super Bowl. And the Toddler Run. You know the one where they look like they’re going to crash? Where their short, stubby legs have to work so hard to get all the way to the swing set?
If you have little kids right now, look at them. Look at the creases and dimples in their pudgy hands. Better yet, if they’re babies, smell the tops of their heads. It really IS the fountain of youth. If you don’t have small children, just look at some while you’re out shopping. Don’t be creepy and weird, but really watch them for just a little while if you can.
That was JESUS. God the Son Himself. Can you imagine Him so small, so human? He emptied Himself of His Godly power and became one of us.
Blinking, seeing His parents’ faces for the first time.
Falling down over and over as He learned to walk.
Learning to say a word, though His word created Light in the physical world.
Hugging His Mama.
Helping His Dad and so proud about it.
Pranking His friends.
Laughing at His brothers’ gas. Come on, people, let your hair down. He was a HUMAN BOY. I live with four of them.
And I know He was different. He was teaching the teachers in the Temple by the time He was 12. My preteens are not teaching the pastor. He was “tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin.” (Hebrews 4:15) I saw the evidence of will, of self, and disobedience as soon as my babies could crawl. But Jesus never defied His parents, never talked back, never ever sinned.
He was perfectly Spirit-filled. It can make Him seem distant. But as you ponder the miracle of Christmas, look at the little ones. He was here. He looked like that. Just without the frowny faces that pop up. Full of joy. He was LITTLE. He loves kids. And He still sees the kid in you.
