Incarnation: God With Us

My daughter, Claire, is on the move. Last month she found her walking skills, and every day since she has been getting better and better at them. If you remember the alien in Men in Black, then you will have a vivid picture as to how she walks around the house. Like the alien, she is not quite comfortable in her skin yet, but she is totally committed to a more mobile lifestyle. This new stage in her life has caused me to change my parenting style. I have gone from asking, “How are you doing, sweet Claire?” as she stays in the location I have put her to “Where in the world is Claire?”

When the room gets quiet, I know she is up to something elsewhere, so I begin my parental ritual chant, “CLAIRE? Come out come out wherever you are?” I find myself repeating this over and over…not because I am particularly found of these words, but because she typically doesn’t respond to them. Off I go searching the rooms in the house to find where she has gone (and what trouble she might have gotten into!).

When I do find her, she turns to me and gives me a great big smile. Then, in an innocent fashion, she hands me whatever she has been playing with as if to say, “Dad, I just came in here to go get this (substitute anything breakable or harmful to children here) for you.” I reach down, pick her up, and redirect her to more children friendly pursuits.

It dawned on me this week as I was calling for Claire repeatedly one evening that the Lord calls out to me. Often, I treat the Lord as if he is in one room of the house, and if I choose to leave the room I am out of God’s presence. I can go see him if I want, but it is up to me to go to him. The gospels teach something completely different.

In John we read that the “word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” It is Jesus who came looking for us! He desires for us to be in his presence. The action is on God’s part, not mine. Jesus’ pursuit of us, his call for us to come into his presence, is an invitation to me to take part in life. He calls me from my self-destructive ways, and teaches me to live, really live, in his presence.