FOOD FOR THOUGHT
(01/03/2010)
BENT
KNEES
Cindy
Hong
Being
Daddy's girl, anything Dad did, I copied. We didn't need a puppy because
I was their home-grown mutt, following Dad around wagging my tail. When
he washed the car, I followed with my kiddie sponge. When he mowed the
lawn, I walked behind with my toy mower. When he watched TV, my eyes were
glued to the screen. Only his shows were too gruesome for me—car chases,
drug busts, street shootings. Hands over eyes, I asked Dad, “Good guy
or bad guy?” The rest of the hour was spent peeking through fingers,
cheering for the good guy and wishing the bad guys would quickly meet
their demise. On Sundays I did the same thing with the Bible stories.
Good guy or bad guy? Ahab and Jezebel. Easy. In the infancy narratives,
Mary and Joseph, good peeps. Jesus, off-the-charts goodness. Herod, B-A-D.
A king, yet a wimp. And yet as good as I want to be, it seems I find myself
more like Herod and less like Mary, Joseph, Simeon, the shepherds. I discover
I'm full of petty jealousies and manipulative schemes, underhanded plottings
and debilitating fears, basically wimpy in faith. Then out of the blue
these sages from the East appear, these unnamed strangers to the story.
Their response fascinates me, such a contrast with my own. On faith they
follow a star. Upon seeing the baby, they rejoiced and fell down, worshipped
and offered gifts. Instead of Herod's posture of fear and destruction
(toward babies no less!), they chose to worship and adore the Babe. Could
it be that with Christ living in us and the Holy Spirit empowering us
and the Father watching over us, that we could also choose faith over
fear, a posture of praise and trust over worry and jealousy? Epiphany
(January 6) is the day the church celebrates the wise men coming to Jesus,
the Christ-child “manifesting” His glory as the Anointed One to and
for the world. With Christ now appearing in us and through us, may we
all manifest a similar posture of bent knees before the Son of God—beholding
His glory, being full of faith, awe, and praise.
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