I mentioned in a previous post that Mark’s Aunt Phyllis was an artist with clay. The first photo shows a gift she once gave to Jerry representing his and Genevieve’s three sons: Michael, who died at birth on Christmas Day 1945 (notice the baby in their arms); Todd and Mark and their respective families. The other photo shows only our family. As you can see, our three sons were already into golf and basketball when they were little! Aunt Phyllis knew us well and knew we had to hold hands and look into each other’s eyes if we were going to thrive and survive parenthood!
The true Advent story shows God coming down in physical body as a baby, with the same innocence and needs of all babies and through the womb of a vulnerable young woman. Physical birthing was and still is a vulnerable and dangerous journey and doesn’t always end in the way our hearts hope. Jerry and Genevieve knew of that great grief. We are all earthen vessels, and God gives us His treasure in weakened and fragile bodies and spirits; 2 Corinthians 4:7 reminds us of this.
Through this season of Advent, when I am not actively or formally a part of planning any Christmas events in a church, God desires just one thing: that I be “faithful in adoration” of Him. That I provide space for Him to come to me in new ways. God has come into my space this season to remind me that I am the clay and He is the Potter, not the other way around.
Richard Rohr writes, “The price for real transformation is high. It means that we have to change our loyalties from power, success, money, and control (read ‘our kingdoms’) to the Lordship of Jesus and the kingdom of God. All of our safety nets must now be secondary or even let go of, because Jesus is Lord. Whatever you trust to validate you and secure you is your real god.”
For Mary, the disdain and stigma of an unwed pregnancy was real in her community and faith tradition. Instead of hiding or denying, she transformed her trauma into song. She turned her “How will this be?” into “May it be so, according to your word.”
God knows all your safety nets and says, “Let go. I will catch you.” When you do that, you will experience the greatest safety net of all this season.
