Now....?

What now, Jesus?

When I need you today, each day, every day.......Jesus?
Where are You between the "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given...." and redemption?

Probably in the middle of a multitude of diaper changings, midnight feedings, late-evening floor pacing, early morning cooing, afternoon napping, all ten perfect fingers-perfect toes wondering of new parents in the what-seems-never-ending whirlwind of newborn"ness".

Because surely Mary and Joseph experienced those things.

And surely, You, in Your humanity, experienced those things.

And surely, no matter how miraculous, healing, and life giving Your arrival was, You had to get through the ordinary and mundane - the days after all the awed visitors and gifts - in order to arrive at the specific Miracle-Making, People-Healing, Disciple-Making, Life-Giving, Kingdom-Preaching time God, Your Father, had already ordained for You.

You.  All of those things.  Confined within my incapable, incompetent, disinterested humanity.

The improbability of a quick, easy, painless, bloodless birth and the irony of the King of Kings sleeping on straw.

And me with the expectation of "Happy Christmas"...

I can't get my mind around it today.  The You I talk to today and the babe we've all been awaiting these weeks past.

And now, reflecting upon the "Big Day" that has now come and gone...

~The hyped-upped anticipation of arrival and celebration and the return to the (sometimes) crushing ordinariness of the tasks that consume the everyday.

~The Big Picture made up of all these tiny details.

~The sudden turnaround of instant renewal and the drudging slowness of a snail-paced transformation.

...and finally coming to the realization that You are both the overwhelming joy and rescue - our salvation - long awaited.....and the steady comfort and strength for everyday.  For all the seemingly insignificant details that come together to form the whole.

You are the small - the helpless babe.  The child of human parentage...."For to us a child is born..."

Midnight cries.

Ultimate vulnerability.

Absolute dependence.

Utter neediness.

You are the Big.  The Son of Divine Origin..."to us a son is given..."

Wonderful Counselor.

Mighty God.

Everlasting Father.

Prince of Peace.

You have heard my cries.  You have seen my vulnerability, my dependence, my neediness.

You answer all my "whys" and "wherefores".  You are Wonderful Counselor.
You have the power to accomplish Your plan.  You are Mighty God.
You are loving and forgiving.  You are Everlasting Father.
You reconcile me with God and with others.  You are Prince of Peace.

On the "big" day and every day.  You are.

Not only for my then, not only for my now, but for my next.

You, the not-so-ordinary or mundane but extraordinary and heavenly, in every aspect of my ordinary and mundane-my commonplace and my worldly.

YOU are what is next.

Not "What now, Jesus"?  

Me.  Questioning You.

But, 

"What now?"  

Jesus.  

You.  The Answer to my question.

A Planters Life

I never much liked to garden.

I don't like dirt.  

I don't like dirty hands.

I don't like dirty nails.

I don't have the patience it takes to wait.  

Not liking to do it and having to do it don't sit well with me.  

...Stiff-necked much?  Stubborn and hard headed much?

Maybe just a bit.  Can you relate?

Yet, I am a seed planter.  I am a sower.  I am compelled-driven-to do this thing.  It is my faith in action.  It is my purpose put into words.  It is the overflow of grace poured upon me that spills over and out onto others.

And yet my vessel never empties...

It requires hands to get dirty.  It gets under every fingernail.  It even finds its way into places I never knew could contain such messiness.  It requires patience to wait.  Not liking it has nothing to do with having to do it.

This is not to be confused with being the Gardener.  In this instance, my job will not be to cultivate.  It is merely to plant.

I will not be the One to send the rain.

I will not be the One to make the sun send forth its powerful rays.

What I plant will carry along with it everything it needs to regenerate.  I simply must be obedient in offering it freely and placing it in the dirt.

I may get to enjoy the fruit of the harvest or it may be enjoyed by another.  Either way, the planting must be done.

Or there will be no harvest at all.