Advent II - It is God who does it ...

Tuesday, Dec 7, 2010. We humans believe that we can do it. Yes we can! … We believe that it is us … we are the most powerful species on the planet. We have learned to master the fire. We have learned to fly. We have learned to build huge buildings …

The story of a child …

The biblical Christmas story is the story of a child. It is the story of weakness. It is a story of strong needs. The parents had to follow administrative demands. They went to another town. They had no place to stay. The story talks about problems, the daily difficulties of life, and in the middle of all of this it talks about a little child. We all know how vulnerable infants are.

Who has the power? On a daily basis we need to think about this. We all live in active societies. We are busy pushing our companies further. We are strong. We try to be world-leading. We try to sell as much as possible. We try to be in control. We think, that we are in control.

We are somehow between two extremes. Total control over our life and our affairs - and no control at all, just being pushed around by fate. How much control do we actually have? How much control do you have over your own life? Do you have more control than the parents Josef and Mary, who had to travel all the way to Bethlehem? Do you have more control than the little child, this Jesus child, in the creche? How much control do we really have?

God's way of control …

God gives us our possibilities. He gives us control over our actions. But there are many others who have their share in the control. The whole world tries to be in control - like 2000 years ago in Bethlehem.

We are partly in control. But we cannot completely control, and we cannot guarantee that our aims and tasks succeed. There are too many other forces, who put their power in, who take part in the game.

In the middle of the game God is in control. That is one of the mysteries of this world. It is one of the deep mysteries of Christmas. God is there. He is there in the middle of the world. He is there in the little child. This child has a purpose. It is week and vulnerable. But it is protected. It will suffer. But God will be there. God has given power to many forces, but still he hasn't given up his options to be in control of the history of the world. He is just always one step larger, one step deeper, one step higher than our idea of what he is supposed to be. He is the true and eternal God. The Christmas story links us to him … and the child Jesus plays the main role in this. ... more texts