Scripture says that the child grew “in wisdom and the favor of God”. This is Jesus and this is the beginning for Him and for each of us. I find it refreshing and joyous that I started just like he did, nobody special just a newborn baby. And I find it even more powerful that I can grow in wisdom too.
Jesus repeatedly said he was not God. Remember him saying that “only God is good”? Jesus made it clear he was not God so how did we turn him into a deity to worship and not a friend to follow and fellowship with? If we leave him as God, we make it impossible to relate to him. If we see him as the ultimate example of what each of us is called to be we have hope that we too can grow in wisdom and favor with God.
Perhaps on the eve of a new year we should examine who we will choose to be in the coming year. Do we worship the man Jesus or do we call him brother and friend? Do we choose to embody love and peace and joy? What we seem to have lost sight of is that we get to choose every day. Maybe it is time to embody choice every day. That would certainly make us free. That would certainly help us all to live in this present moment.
Oscar Wilde was right “be yourself, all the others are taken “. So this year let’s choose to live in the present moment and to grow in wisdom and favor with God. Let’s truly become Christian, and embody that life that was so freely given as an example.
TMM