What or who is God? It is important to have some idea of the nature of God if we are to desire a share in the Divine Life as offered through Jesus Christ. We are told through scripture and we can know by reasoning that God is a spirit, unique and eternal, that He is perfection, justice and truth, and goodness and friendship. Above all God is our Father and God is love.
We know we are now – not what God is. In our strange ways we aspire to all that God is. Our efforts are often perverse and destructive and bring about the opposite of what we desire. Nevertheless, God wishes for us to share in all that is good. He spoke to human beings through the prophets and finally He spoke to us through the Word made flesh. Jesus, born of Mary is all God and all of humanity, the Son of God and the Son of Man. He is the meeting place of God and man, the person through whom our separation from goodness is healed and reconciliation effected. He is though the image of the Cross, the vertical beam – God to Man – and the horizontal beam – Man to Man. He gave himself so totally in obedience to that mission on the Cross, the union of the vertical and the horizontal. However. human beings, all of us of course, find it difficult to be obedient, to listen to the Divine Word, even though it is for our own good.
Now it was Christmas Eve, and a man was discussing with his wife how odd it seemed that God should have chosen to come on earth as a helpless babe. It certainly would not be his idea of drawing much attention or of making any great impression. As he spoke, his attention was drawn to some sort of commotion going on outside in the garden.
He looked out, and saw five geese, floundering around in the snow. They obviously had become detached from a migrating flock that had passed by. Anxious to help in some way, he ran into the garden, and his appearance created total panic among the frightened geese, as they flapped their wings, and continued to sink in the soft snow. He opened the garage door and tried to direct them in, in the hope of getting some animal protection group to come and collect them.
The more he tried to help, the more frightened they became, and they were in great danger of injuring themselves. For one desperate moment, he wished he were a goose, and in their own language he could tell them that he was concerned about them, and was only trying to help them. We are not told what happened to the geese, but the man himself saw clearly right there why Jesus came the way he did. By becoming one of us, he could speak our language, tell us clearly what he was about, how he could rescue us, and that we could trust him, and not be afraid.
We know that Jesus endured suffering and death, that He rose from the dead and sent us the Holy Spirit. That gift of grace enables us to become as Christ is by His very nature. By the gift of the Holy Spirit we may share in a life that is all we truly long for. The helpless and vulnerable baby is the sign of our hope for a share in that life.
