Dependence
Luke 2:7 (ESV) 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.
I
enjoy teaching high school students…most of the time. When motivated, they
engage in near-adult conversations, often developing thoughts that surprise and
teach me; however, they bring their own special challenges to the classroom. Chief among these challenges is a burning desire for independence. All my students
make the casual assumption that they do not need any help with anything. With
all the seriousness that they can muster, they will look me in the face and
tell me that I do not know what I am talking about, or that what I am teaching
them has no real application in their future. They find it impossible to
conceive of a problem that they cannot answer. They yearn for independence.
Every year I have students that connive and plot to graduate early, thinking
they have nothing left to learn. Sometimes I must bite my lip to avoid laughing
in their serious faces. I was just the same, though not as vocally rude about
it. There is something about our makeup that rebels against depending upon anyone;
but, the creator of the universe gladly made himself dependent upon a very
young, inexperienced woman.
If
you can, imagine what that jarring experience was like. One moment you’re
managing the universe, ensuring that the planets move in their appointed path, that
the sun continues to burn at the right temperature, and that the tides rise and
fall appropriately. The next you’re a drooly baby that cannot feed itself or
change a poopy diaper. All you can really do is cry when you want something and
coo or gurgle happily when your teenage mother meets your needs. This is a major exercise
in dependence. The voice that spoke our universe into existence, can only wail
hopefully when it needs burping. The hands that crafted woman from a rib can
only flail aimlessly. The feet that strode across the stars, and soon a small
sea, will have to learn how to crawl, stand, toddle, and then run. The true
master of the universe agreed to be so helpless and powerless that a mere teenager
was more powerful and wiser. If the Son of God could submit to that kind of
humiliation, what keeps me from bending my knee to help the helpless?
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