Would We Recognize the Christ Child?

Would We Recognize the Christ Child If We Saw Him? It might be harder than we think. We might be tempted to look for him in a hospital or perhaps a birthing clinic in some suburb but I do not think we would find him there. We might look for a blond, blue eyed Jesus but I don’t think those attributes would fit the correct profile.

 Jesus would look much more like one of the babies carried on the backs of the women in Kajire, Kenya than like a baby in a stroller at the Beaver Valley Mall. Jesus had dark hair, dark skin and dark eyes. If he was not hungry most of the time he certainly did not get much more than the bare essentials. He grew up in an uneducated, religiously fundamentalist household. The idea that worshipping God was somehow optional would have appalled him and his people. He and his parents lived in tiny houses, like the adobe shacks that house Mexico’s poor. He had little or no discretionary income. He walked everywhere he needed to go. Communications? His ears and his voice. Entertainment? Studying Torah. Medical Care? A few home remedies. Jesus and his family endured a hard life, a short life, and a life of deprivation…nevertheless it was a life devoted to giving thanks to God for the manifold blessings they received.

We will be most likely to find the Christ child when we look in two unlikely places. We will find him living and ministering among the least, the last and the lost. It is his desire to give his life for them. And we will find him anywhere people devote their lives to worshipping the one true God. Jesus is always present among those giving God thanks and praise.