Jesus softly crying, can you hear him?

Somewhere there is a baby crying. Possible reasons for this outburst are many. The baby might be hungry, in pain, in need of a diaper change, tired, teething, ill, too cold or hot. The echoes of our own crying babies still resonate through my mind. We remember nights without sleep and days without peace. What we wouldn't do to calm our children and keep them comfortable.

The worst possible feelings for us occurred when sickness invaded the bodies of our kids. We wanted so badly to take their sickness and inject it into us. Instead, we doctored, nursed, and carried on the best way we knew how. I was amazed that after four children, we could usually identify what each child needed just by the tone, pitch, and severity of the crying.

As parenting equals getting to know your children, our faith equals how much we are learning about God. God creates. God loves. God nurtures (like a mother). God hears our cries. God redeems. God provides. God is our heavenly parent. God is Abba (daddy). God knows what we need in the tone, pitch, and severity of our cries. Jesus is the Rx for our discomfort. He understands. God sent Jesus to us so that our inner pain and illness could be cured. Jesus coming to earth in human form means something and is described here in Hebrews:

And again he says, “Here am I, and the children God has given me.” Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." (Hebrews 2:14-18, NIV)

Our lives are encompassed in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. God took on flesh and lived among His creation to experience the cold, heat, illness, hunger, discomfort, and other ailments of a fallen world. I, for one, am thankful that Jesus chose to do this. God bends near the earth, listens intently to us, and enters into our reality. Jesus Christ is born this day in the city of David. I hear him softly crying for the condition of the human race. Can you hear Him?