Too many years of trying to lift and carry everything myself have finally caught up with me. So, this year at Christmas I will be in the process of recovering from back surgery. The timing of this procedure has been beyond inconvenient for myself and my family, but God gives grace. The main thing is, I just don’t do helpless very well. Not at all.
Experiencing this surgery/recovery at this season got me thinking about the Christmas story. God incarnate became one of the most helpless beings on the planet. The human baby pales pathetically compared to most other newborn creatures in its ability to survive on its own. It cannot warm or feed itself, cannot stand or run or hide. It is completely dependent on communicating its needs for all of the above by weak utterances that hopefully someone will care enough to interpret. Apart from its ability to cry out, it is totally helpless and dependent.
Fortunately for me, I have been surrounded by family members who have bent over backward, literally since I cannot, to take care of me in my recovery. The helpless Christ child had Mary and Joseph, but even they were overwhelmed by the extremities of their experience.
They were powerless against a decree that required their travel. They had to be dependent on the mercy of others for even the most basic shelter. They were helpless to prevent the coming of the birth for a more convenient time and place. They were dependent on the generosity of others who provided gifts which financed their escape as refugees into Egypt. Poor Joseph was so overwhelmed, yet could not turn to his family for advice or counsel as would have been the order of the day; he waited completely dependent on messengers from God for direction.
This enforced helplessness has been for me a sort of fasting of self-sufficiency. There’s suddenly a whole range of physical movements and activities that I have had to give up doing for myself. I cannot image God allowing for Himself the limitations of a human baby! I just really want to put on my own socks!
Why would God choose such a humble helplessness of beginning? Hebrews 4: 15 is one answer: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” The mediator between my soul and God needed to understand helplessness. My tendency to want to handle it all myself rather than be dependent even when it means I hurt myself…how much I hate to ask for help…how hard it is to trust others to do what needs to be done…maybe really at the heart of it- how hard it is to trust Him and not to protect and defend myself.
I have an overwhelming respect and admiration for Joni Eareckson Tada and others like her, who have allowed God to use their helplessness and dependency to minister to others.
“My wheelchair was the key to seeing all this
happen—especially since God’s power always shows up best in weakness. So here I
sit … glad that I have not been healed on the outside, but glad that I have
been healed on the inside. Healed from my own self-centered wants and wishes.”
Liked!
“The weaker I am, the harder I must lean on God’s grace; the harder I lean on him, the stronger I discover him to be, and the bolder my testimony to his grace.” Joni
2 Corinthians 12:9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
I have never thought of this verse in connection to the Christmas story, but how true it is that God’s power was made perfect in the weakness of a tiny baby. Only God could do that!
Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly in my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Amen! Let it be.