In many ways, to bear a child is a subversive act. To deliver new life into this world- a move of defiance. It says to the powers-that-be, you cannot and will not slow the birth of resistance and the dawn of God's movement of justice and peace.
The irony that those in power the first Christmas were so threatened by young ones of the same age as my children, whose greatest weapons are legos left on the floor, temper tantrums provoked by age-appropriate irrationalism, and a rank diaper, reminds me how truly weak and insecure these tyrants are. Despite their over-compensating rhetoric, they are fragile and fickle.
Yet they must be resisted. Our children depend upon us as we imagine and dare to construct a reality contrary to their versions of empire, which are dark and futile at best.
Actually, these little ones are the agents of change the Christmas story proclaims will lead us forward. They are the incarnation of our resistance. That just may be the reason the powers fear them most.
Actually, these little ones are the agents of change the Christmas story proclaims will lead us forward. They are the incarnation of our resistance. That just may be the reason the powers fear them most.
These are the things I think about this final week of Advent, as I hold our newest little one- whose name means "close to God."
Praying, wherever your spirit may be this time of year, you feel such closeness in the midst of a world threatening greater and greater divisions.