Although I am not a theologian or pastor, I like to offer an annual Christmas reflection. This year, death takes a central role in my reflection, both for events thousands of miles away and one tragic event in my...
Although I am not a theologian or pastor, I like to offer an annual Christmas reflection. This year, death takes a central role in my reflection, both for events thousands of miles away and one tragic event in my own family. And indeed the Christmas story itself is not just about birth, but about death as well. And the common link in all of this is a baby.
2023 Christmas Reflection
Walk though Bethlehem this year and the festive celebrations have been cancelled. Instead, there is mourning over the loss of thousands of lives, including many babies. The circumstances surrounding such death may cause division, but the tragedy of each death should unify us in sorrow. Today, I weep with those who weep. I weep for the Palestinian mother holding her dead baby amidst the rubble. I weep for the heartbroken mother of the Israeli baby burned alive.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
Romans 12:15-18
How can it be that after so many decades of conflict, peace seems further away than it has ever been?
* * *
Three weeks ago, my precious niece Ava Marie Klint, pictured above, died at the age of one. She was a beautiful and precious baby who always had a big smile on her face. She also had vasculitis, and tragically and unexpectedly died before reaching her second birthday.
It has been a tough few weeks: tough for me, but immeasurably tougher on my brother and his wife. Sometimes I simply stop and weep. And I think in reflecting on that deep love for a child we can understand why conflict does occur when it is deemed necessary to protect and defend our progeny. It is the greatest instinct of a parent to protect their child and the vulnerability and despair that accompanies the premature death of a little life is devastating.
Our Christmas celebration this year will have an empty seat that little Ava would have occupied. We spent Thanksgiving together, where she was happy as a lark and there was hope that her vasculitis could be controlled such that she could live a somewhat normal life. But sometimes life takes unexpected twists.
* * *
In Bethlehem, 2,000 year ago, an unplanned baby born to a man and woman who had not yet married faced a very uncertain future. In a powerful foreshadowing of what was to come, the baby was placed in a manager; a feeding trough for animals.
For this child, Jesus, was not merely a baby, but the long expected Messiah, the promised deliverer that prophets had foretold for 700 years. Jesus later proclaimed, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.” And on that cruel Roman cross of torture, He gave His body and blood as an atonement for sin, a final sacrifice that showed perfect and selfless love and represented the only food that can ultimately sustain us. That sin, for which every one of us is guilty, created a chasm between God and man that was only bridgeable though Jesus’ act of perfect love.
Thus began the course of humanity’s restoration which will culminate one day in a new heaven and new earth in which there will be no more death or suffering:
“The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.”
Isaiah 11:6
Back on that Bethlehem night, though, there was far more uncertainty. In a fit of jealous rage, King Herod ordered that all male children under two be slaughtered. That forced the young couple to flee to Egypt, where they spent an extended period as refugees. All to save the baby they loved. Would not every parent do the same? Would we not give up our lives for our children?
Three decades later, at the height of his public ministry, Jesus said:
“Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
Matthew 19:14
Children are a gift from God. They are intrinsically valuable as members of the human race, but uniquely valuable for their vulnerability in failing to know right from wrong (Deuteronomy 1:39). I am convinced that just as John The Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirt, God Himself, while still in his mother’s womb (Luke 1:15), a baby who dies will not be separated from God.
* * *
But is this all just sentimentality meant to fill the void in the hearts of the weak? How does a good God allow such tragedy in the world He created?
I cannot answer the “why” question. Sometimes we do find out why, but often we do not.
Ultimately, my hope is faith that God is good and that good will one day ultimately triumph over evil. Isn’t it odd that an instrument of torture sits in the font of most Christian churches? There is no beauty in its function, but it symbolism is so powerful.
Jesus died as a sacrifice, thereby showing ultimate love to us. If there is a God, it seems counterproductive to me to question why He allows suffering. Instead, we should look at the suffering He took on Himself because He loved us. Faith is not easy to accept in a world that demands observable evidence, but what a beautiful picture…and death is not more powerful than love. The grave could not contain Jesus…and for that reason we can hope for a day in which we will see Ava again and in which babies who are slaughtered will bask in the goodness of a reality in which there is no more war or sickness.
I still believe, against all odds, and I encourage you this day to grapple with the meaning of life, your purpose in it, and the death at the heart of the Christmas story as the ultimate act of love.
From my family to yours, I wish you a very happy Christmas and look forward to returning to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.
“Then let us all with one accord, Sing praises to our heavenly Lord;
That hath made heaven and earth of nought, And with His blood mankind hath bought.”
-The First Nowell