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Brian Pinter
“Like a child and a friend Jesus comes.”
In the seasons of Advent and Christmas, I often contemplate the fact that Jesus did not come into the world as a superhero with guns blazing. God didn’t overpower the world, crushing its freedom, and imposing God’s will while everyone stands around to watch, either taking satisfaction while evil is annihilated, or suffering the fire of God’s wrath. Rather, God enters the world as a helpless child, a baby who needs to be birthed, nurtured and cared for. Jesus comes to each of us the same way. Like a child, he softens our hearts, inviting us to nurture and coax his presence in us into maturity. Julie Polter, one of the editors at Sojourners, describes it this way: “The power of the universe became a babe in arms, not to teach us about the sweetness of love (although that is real too), but to teach us about its vulnerability and tangible expression and practical demands; and to teach us that on such as this, kingdoms are built. In a child, any child, the wealth and righteousness of a society, a nation, a world can be read. This isn’t fuzzy sentimentality; this is the law of the universe and the word of the prophets. … What are we waiting for? For the one who has come and comes again, the child who will lead us.”
Prayer: Dear Jesus, in this advent time I welcome you into my heart again. Help me to nurture your presence, and allow myself to be transformed by your powerful innocence and vulnerability. Amen.
Brian Pinter serves as the Director of Spiritual Formation at Christ Church. He is also a certified Spiritual Director.