It is not a slight thing

I have been pondering this Charles Dickens quote a lot over the past six weeks: ”It is not a slight thing when they, who are so fresh from God, love us.”

Annika and Sam have six week old twins and Lars and Kristen have a two week old son. So I have had lots of time holding baby grandkids and being transformed by what they bring. My experiences have taught me two profound truths.

The first is a deeper understanding of the power of Jesus coming as a baby. There is the wonder of seeing someone who has just come from the unseen. There is the amazing vulnerability of God choosing to come as a baby. And there is a deeper understanding of what it means to have a God that really understands and experiences my humanity.

In his book, Honest Advent, Scott Erikson reminds us there is a vulnerability in Christ coming as a baby that he would then know our human experience – and we could trust that he knows our experience. I’d take incarnation over ideology any day. Scott says “our deepest hope is that God is truly with us in all this…God has been waiting for us to move from words to presence so we can join God there.” This truth happens in a new way while being present holding a newborn.

Another most powerful truth has been a new understanding of how God loves me without my doing anything.

A wonderful revelation when I had my first child, Brita, was the amazing overwhelming love I had for her. It knocked my socks off! I remember just staring in wonder and love… I was also overwhelmed by the fact that my mom and dad loved me like this!!

With these babies I have had a deeper understanding of love. The overwhelming, undeserving, complete love of God. As I have held these babes, and loved them just for who they are, not for what they have done, I feel God’s love for me like this.

Knowing I am beloved by God just as I am is a life changing truth, made more real in this season. May you know His love like this.

- Anne

Photo above: Ezra & Easton Cook

Photo below: Jens Lider