Looking With New Eyes
This morning we woke to the world covered in a blanket of white. Our dog, Bo’sun took a few steps out into the back yard and looked around, then ran back in. It was only later that he dared to venture into the strange wonderland our backyard had become to play and do his other daily doggie duties.
Snow makes the world look different. Familiar things like lawn chairs, trash cans and bushes take on new shapes. Sounds are muted. It is as if even our own familiar back yards have become strange and new.
Christmas is about seeing things differently. This Sunday’s scripture, Luke 1:39-45, tells not only of the meeting of two cousins, Mary and Elizabeth, it also the meeting of two unborn babies who will change the world. It is the introduction of the Messiah named Jesus to the prophet named John. The kick of an unborn babe (vs 44) isn’t just a sign of fetal vitality, it is the muscle flexing of John the Baptist leaping for joy. The unplanned pregnancy of an unmarried woman is not a problem that could lead to her abandonment and even death, it is a reason to rejoice at what great things God is doing. And that baby that she is carrying, he will indeed become a powerful king, but not in the way the world expects him.
Conventional wisdom would place Elizabeth at an advantage to Mary. Elizabeth is after all married and the child she is carrying has long been wanted. But Elizabeth greets Mary with joy, saying, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me?” (vv. 41-43). Elizabeth recognizes that God is doing something new and wonderful in sending the Lord Jesus into the world through the womb of the a young woman, Mary.
Mary too, looks at things differently too. She takes on faith the angel Gabriel’s message about having a baby without a human father. Meeting Elizabeth she breaks out in song, proclaiming,
“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant” (vv. 46-48). The gift of Jesus is just that, an unearned and undeserved gift from God. All Mary and we have to do is accept it in faith and trust God to continue to work in our lives. Through Jesus, God will turn the world upside down. The proud and powerful will be brought down and the lowly lifted up. (vv. 50-53).
Good news for us. God loves us not because of our education, our financial wealth, our power, or even our marriage status. In fact God loves those who are humble and rely on God.
So lets look at things this Christmas through God’s eyes. Let us see what “might be instead of what is.” More than a season of good will, let Christmas be year round action to hold open doors of opportunity and welcome to those in our communities who are traditionally shut out.
Our world got disrupted today. The snow shut things down, disrupting routines. It changed the familiar into the unfamiliar. The news called this snow a “major snow event.” Sometimes it takes a “major event” to get us to look at our world different. A major event like Christmas.