On my "TO DO" list recently were several items relating to an upcoming Christmas cantata. My list read:
- memorize music
- practice solo
- double check costumes
- prepare a shopping list for stage make-up
- find Baby Jesus
The last item brought a chuckle, because it was my short-hand reminder to prepare a prop for our actors portraying Mary and Joseph. It also was a somewhat thorny issue, because the baby doll used in the past was quite Caucasian, blond haired, blue eyed, and very fair skinned. It didn't sit right with me to use that doll!
I tried fabricating a rag bundle in a baby's shape. It looked acceptably like an infant from the audience, until Mary bent over to show the baby to the children portraying shepherds. Then you could see it had a lovely burlap face. That wouldn't do! So I was back to my old dilemma.
My director suggested taking stage make-up and coloring the fair-skinned baby doll a darker skin tone. I was hesitant - what if the doll turned orange? (I have seen stranger things happen when trying to adapt old props to new uses!)
Finally, a friend offered the loan of her oldest child's baby doll, a baby with a newborn's face, dark brown eyes and hair and a non-Caucasian complexion. I swaddled the doll, and looked at the results. Tears came to my eyes.
Could it be? He was not just some doll... in that instant, a flash, a split-second, I felt like Mary, holding the infant King of kings. Then the insight was gone, as quickly as it came, but my heart remained stirred.
As surely as I held the swaddled doll, I knew in my heart the reality of John 1:14
As J.B. Phillips says, we are the Visited Planet. Jesus became one of us so that we could be lifted up to become like Him! This personal Epiphany clings to me still, as I start decorating our home for Christmas, plan and make presents, and (yes, still!) memorize music. It sweetens the Christmas carols I sing and the cards I write to friends. It is my prayer, from my heart, that Jesus would make His divinity and His humanity real to you in fresh ways this Christmas!
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