Jesus was born in a stable in Bethlehem. It was hidden - nobody was expecting or preparing for it. Mary and Joseph had no reservation. They burst upon the scene..."any room?" That any child would emerge in such circumstances would be stressful to any parent who hopes for better. But for God's promised child? Jesus is the "light of the world" (John 8:12). Yet, Chesterton described the setting and occasion of his birth as "beneath the floor of the world", by which I think he meant that, other than a few shepherds and wise men from the east, the whole world neglected to look for him there.
We also neglect to look for Jesus in the right place in our hearts. The place we need to look is often the place we would most want to forget. For us, this is the most obstinate part of our heart, where we store our idols, the one part of our life we hold back from God, even if we were otherwise the picture of perfection. It is the place where we feel we need Christ least. Without surrendering here, we still haven't surrendered. But we rarely know it exists. We overlook it, in the same way the world overlooked Bethlehem 2000 years ago. It is the "dark stable" of our heart. It is where Christ comes to us, but we don't notice.
A word about the word "dark". Christ's stable in Bethlehem was dark. It was nighttime. Sleepytime. But the stable in our heart is spiritually dark. It is the same darkness that Jesus talked about before he went to the cross - "the hour of darkness" - when Satan arms himself with all of his power to go up against Jesus. It is at that hour, when Satan is at his mightiest and when Christ is at his weakest, that our victory is won. The darkness has exhausted itself and has ended. In Christ's resurrection, the light of the world has filled our lives with the same light.
And yet we who are in Christ are simultaneously justified and sinners. We have the fullness of his life. Yet, we will do what we can to resist him. We still hide from God, and we must look to Christ and find our true life in him or else we will lose it. This "dark stable" is where we must look. Where is that? The one place we don't want to look. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the renowned German pastor noted for his opposition to the Nazis, knew how we deceive ourselves: "The word of forgiveness is invariably a concrete word for concrete sins. If I do not want to hear it concretely because I want to retain this part of my life for myself, I cannot hear the word of forgiveness at all. For every other area in my life I soon turn the Word of God into a drug - and one soon tires of drugs as a rule. The grace of God becomes, in the end, reduced to the grace I grant myself." (Spiritual Care, p. 33, underlinings mine)
"This part of my life." As we look for meaning this Christmas in events, parties, the giving and receiving of gifts, traveling, and meals, where aren't we looking? When Jesus was born, everyone was looking to power and might to give meaning. Where weren't they looking? I pray we will have a chance this Advent to come to a place of perfect humility to receive Jesus Christ anew into our lives. And I pray his perfect light will be cast into every corner of our hearts.
1) What parts of your day are you glad, and even excited to give to God?
2) What parts of your day are you unwilling to share with him?
3) I invite you to "come clean" with God today. Try reading Psalm 80 and praying a prayer like it to get to a deeper part of yourself. Then, as you reflect on all God has done for you, I invite you to look at Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21. Jesus has taken on all our burdens. His gift to us is that we might become the righteousness of God.
