Advent day 16: New World

^{Luke 2:7}

7 and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no guest room available for them.

God became flesh. I wonder of the restraint, even as a baby, that God had to exercise. Did Jesus know then that He was God? Or did He have to develop His spiritual gifts like the rest of us? An old comedian once said that he didn't think Jesus knew as a baby because if He did, he was faking all those diaper changes. But even then, was that just another act of humility? Letting God Himself be raised by us.

But in this moment, in the manger, was He aware? Did he remember the last nine months of being nurtured by a human stomach? Was He seeing the world He created with new appreciation? Or with new disgust?

Maybe He didn't know anything. Maybe He too, like Mary and Joseph, wanted nothing more than to give into sleep that night. Was He aware that He was the last of the sacrificial lambs? Did He look at the lambs around Him and understand the grave He was here to defeat?

Hey God,

Simply: Thank You.

Amen.