Justin McRoberts writes,
“… one of the most powerful aspects of the Incarnation story is the thirty years of silence before the recorded part of Jesus’ life. That silence – since nobody found much of it worth marking down – says to me that Jesus lived a life that is in large part unremarkable, until He was baptized by John. Many days I find my life to be somewhat unremarkable: I work, I eat, I rest, I have time with family and friends. Nothing out of the ordinary – not even a flash of celestial glory. I am encouraged that Jesus lived such a life as well, at least for a time.
Unlike many other ancient incarnation stories wherein a god takes on human form for a while and only to serve a special purpose, in Jesus, God not only became a human being, but He …
was carried in a woman’s body,
was born to a woman,
was raised in a family with parents who taught Him to feed Himself, and had a dad.
And it seems, somewhere along the way, He …
lost His dad,
had siblings,
had friends,
lost friends,
lived in a neighbourhood,
had neighbours,
held a job,
worked for money,
paid for food,
and paid taxes.
All of which says to me that these things are not insignificant in their normality but that God finds worth in spending most of a human lifetime attending to simple things like work and neighbors and friendship and family.”
from “Scared Antacids”, Prayer: Forty Days of Practice
by Justin McRoberts and Scott Erickson
From the blog
Who do you work for?
Joseph and Mary: A Poem
Parental love
