IT’S A
Luke 2: 22-40
In spite of recalling Christmases when my sister got a
plastic Wonderhorse, our children got stuffed animals, Jenny got dolls, and the
boys got Buzz Lightyear and Batman, taking care of a toy is nothing like taking
care of a real pet or child. Over our back fence we love patting a loveable
golden retriever named Sam. We get 5 minutes or so at a time of his attention
and he gets ours. Only Christmas Eve did I learn that when people come to his
house, he has to be locked in a room sometimes because he is too excited to not
play rough! Jenny and boyfriend Brian, inspired by Sam, got a Golden Retriever
named Hemi nine months ago. He spent a week in our house over Christmas. What a
difference it is to pat a dog for 5 minutes and live with a dog 24 hours a day!
His feeding and boundary and bathroom habits needed attention, and in spite of
his good training, he changed the way we lived for seven days. And that was
just a dog! Those who have had a child,
or have lived with a newborn know the responsibilities that come with a child:
constant attention to warmth, eating, changing diapers, and identifying angry
crying, sick crying, or hungry crying. When Christopher was born I was in my
last year at Princeton Seminary. In preparation for his birth we took classes,
changed the dining room in our one bedroom apartment into a nursery, and I took
movies of Mary Ann acting out her nesting instinct by even vacuuming the
furniture and washing the walls! When Matthew was born, we lived in
Today’s Luke text carries us over from the Christmas Eve
texts: Mary, and the man to whom she is engaged-Joseph- go to great lengths to
be together at the time of Jesus’ birth: instead of leaving Mary behind in
Nazareth, where her family could certainly have cared for her and may have
wanted to, he took her with him in her condition as he fulfilled the census
requirement put out by decree. In fact,
if I were her mother and father, I might have insisted that she stay to give
birth there. We will never know if it was Mary’s understanding
of the angel’s decree, or her desire to stay with Joseph since both had been
visited by an angel, that made her travel in her condition. The Bible doesn’t
say how they got to
Children around the world, and certainly those of us near
Disney World, know one story of magic when a toy
marionette is changed into a real boy!
It’s the story of a blue fairy that magically brought a toy maker’s favorite
toy to life. The puppet that became a boy was Pinocchio, and he only came to
life when he gained the virtues of bravery, loyalty, and honesty, that would be
needed in a real life. The toy maker, Gepetto, loved Pinocchio like a son.
People have told stories that describe the cost of real care for
a pet or, even more importantly, a child, in any number of stories. In Margery
Williams’ classic tale of THE VELVETEEN RABBIT, the stuffed animal rabbit sat
on the nursery floor one day and asked the Skin Horse, who looked old and wise,
what it was to be
“What is real?” the rabbit asked.
“Does it mean having things that buzz inside
you and a stick-out handle?”
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said
the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a
long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes” replied the Skin Horse,
for he was always truthful. “When you are
“Does it happen all at once, like
being wound up,” Rabbit asked, “or bit by bit?” “It doesn’t happen all at
once,” replied the Skin Horse. … “It
takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t
often happen to people who break easily or have sharp edges or who have to be
carefully kept. Generally by the time you are
If we were but puppets controlled by strings that stretched
into Heaven; or if we were stuffed animals that only moved when someone moved
us, we would have no knowledge of life and death, or of right and wrong, or
have the burdens and joys of feelings- from happiness to sadness, from hurt to
healing. To some hurting people such numbness seems like bliss, but clinically
such numbness is called death; inanimate, lifeless objects don’t feel; human
beings feel, with all of the burdens and joys that come with it.
God chose humanness to know the gamut of our emotions; to
know what it was like to have skin, and to know both the joy a Zacchaeus’
conversion, and the sorrow of Judas’ betrayal. God chose to become human, with all of its complications. Babies are complicated: they have needs, and
as they grow they need guidance, and when they are grown they have
responsibility. Today we were reminded by a prophet named Simeon, that even the
blessed event of Jesus’ birth has its dark side. We’d like to be at the part of
the story that say’s we’ll live happily ever after. We’re not there yet; but as
we celebrate his birth we have this assurance: Jesus was born to save real
people like you and me! Thanks be to God for the greatest gift of all at
Christmas.
Jeffrey A. Sumner