Baby Jesus

Baby Jesus, Baby Jesus

I love you, I love you

You are my savior, You are my savior

Every day, Every day.

This was, I think, the first nursery rhyme I ever learned. Complete with the gesture of rocking a baby in your arms. And all three languages that I speak; English, Kiswahili and Kikuyu. I never really thought about it until my friend pointed it out to me. I have become used to the idea that God became a man and died on the cross for our sin, but somehow, the magnitude of the fact that he came as a baby, escapes me.

Christ wanted to have the entire human experience; be fully man. And every man (except Adam and Eve) comes to this world as a baby. I think about the vulnerabilities of being a baby. The dependence on other people for everything. Growing and learning, to walk and talk. (I wonder how long Baby Jesus took to take His first step, or speak His first word…). Anyway, my point is, it took the very highest level of humility for Him to come and save the world.

And then I think about the fact that, for the first thirty years of His life, He did not “reveal” Himself as God, but lived the simple life of a carpenter’s son. When I was younger, my dad had a certain tape that contained different sermons from some preacher. He preached in Kikuyu and all his sermons were hilarious. There was one we repeated a lot where he taught about the time Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do people say I am?” You know how preacher’s will sometimes embellish to make there point? He decided he would add a little something to the disciples’ answers, “Some say you steal wood!”. That cracked me up every time. But thinking about it now, I think he was on to something. People who knew Jesus before He started His ministry probably didn’t think very much of Him. And even though He probably knew, He kept his cool until the right time came.

Over the last several years, I have been at a place in my life where I’ve been trying to “find” my purpose in life. I’ve had all these ideas of the big things that I want to do, but I haven’t really stopped to think that first, I need to be humble and then I need to take my time honing whatever skill/talent it will take to achieve those dreams. I’m stopping to think now…