Advent: Vulnerable Expectation
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A Note from Dr. Melissa Pearce, Director of Alumni and Partner Relations:
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My role at Saint Paul is all about relationships.听It is centered around connection 鈥 meeting alumni, hearing their stories, telling their stories and finding ways to help resource the ministries of our graduates.听As I explored the idea of Advent and the awaiting heart, I decided to center it on the idea of relationship.听What does a babe in a manger have to do with connection?
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Several summers ago, my husband, my son, and I were hankering for Baskin Robbins.听We were standing in line waiting to place our order when I noticed a man in his late twenties, sporting a baseball cap and missing his left arm, marked his place in the queue behind us.听
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I quickly turned my attention back to the ice cream, and as I debated over mint chocolate chip or butter pecan, I heard my five-year-old son鈥檚 voice, 鈥淗ey, can I ask you a question?鈥澨齀 thought he was about to request a two-dipped cone and I was perched to respond with the usual 鈥渙ne will do just fine.鈥澨鼿owever, this is what I heard: 鈥淒id you lose your arm in a lightsaber fight?鈥澨齏hat?听It took me a moment to register what just happened 鈥 my son had just asked a stranger if his missing arm was the mark of a Star Wars battle gone wrong.听
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I had no immediate response to this other than embarrassment.听How did my son not know that you do not just point out someone鈥檚 disability?听I cringed inside and braced myself for any number of negative reactions.听I was prepared at best for this guy to ignore my son and at worst for him to give a reply laced with malice.
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How wrong I was. While I stood there berating myself for not teaching my child about social taboos, I experienced a sweet human exchange.听听This man did not hold contempt for my curious child.听He bent down and looked my son in the eye and replied, 鈥淣ope, that would have been cool, right?听No fight, just born this way.鈥澨齅y son scrunched up his nose and exclaimed, 鈥渂ummer.鈥澨齀 could hear it in his voice that he really meant this. There was my son looking back into this man鈥檚 eyes, offering a sincere, empathetic understanding that this guy somehow had been shortchanged.听I could also see how this empathy was received and appreciated by the man.听My parental shame was quickly replaced by awe and recognition of the blessing of connection that had just taken place.
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My son then asked the man to sit with us at our table and proceeded to ask multi-layered questions about life with only one arm.听Some of the inquiries were quite personal and made me a bit uncomfortable, but they did not phase our new friend.听He answered with candor and tenderness.听Between bites of his cone, he displayed deep vulnerability and authentically shared with us what it was like to be him.听
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I think about this meeting often as it was such a precious glimpse as to how fully the reign of God on earth can be experienced when we disregard worldly convention and allow ourselves to be vulnerable with one another.听It has impressed upon me the importance of vulnerability and its role in knowing God and each other with more depth.
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And what better example of vulnerability is there than a newborn in a manger?听That鈥檚 correct, we have a God who knows what it takes to be vulnerable 鈥 a God that chose to break into this world as a babe fully dependent on others for nourishment and protection.听A God that continued to impart lessons of vulnerability through the cities, the countryside, the mountains and finally on the hill of death.听We have a vulnerable God.听
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Do not make the mistake of interchanging weak or powerless with vulnerable.听We do not have an impotent God.听We have a God that is Almighty, yet also a God of grace and openness.听A God of revelation and relationship that opens Divine arms to us and yearns for us to nestle into them to be cherished and cradled.听
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As we anticipate the birth of Jesus, let us think about what it means to be vulnerable.听What does it mean to be dependent and reliant on God for nourishment and protection?听What does it look like to be vulnerable with one another?听Can we experience the reign of God more fully if we let go of our walls, insecurities, and coping mechanisms and learn to be authentically present with our neighbor?
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Ever-open, ever-powerful God, we pray for the courage to follow your lessons of vulnerability. Teach us to be a babe in a manger, trusting that you will provide for us.听Guide us to be as open to others as you are with us.听Amen.