Third Sunday of Advent, December 11, 2022
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Least in the kingdom of heaven
Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?
Jesus didn’t answer the question with words.
Go and tell John what you hear and see.
There are some who do know Jesus is the one. But those who know are neither regal nor recognized. They are the “blind, the lame, the lepers, the deaf, the dead who are raised, and the poor.”
Isn’t that enough for John’s disciples? Isn’t that enough for John? Isn’t that enough for me?
Whatever theological questions I might have about Jesus the God-Man pale in the face of his life: how he prays, how he listens to his Father and the people around him, how he waits and then, how he heals. Nothing encircles or entraps him. He is never overtaken. And he asks for so little in return.
Blessed is the one who takes no offense in me.
Jasper slept hard and then after his nap, we played hard. At the library we made beautiful sand art star necklaces. I gave mine, the one with the purple string, to Margaret, whose favorite color is purple. Before and after our library gig, I watched Jasper wait. Wait for me, for the sand art to start, for me to get him out of the car seat, for the food at Culver’s. When we were ready he ran pell-mell – to the food, to the table, to the bathroom, to the car. When we stopped, he stopped. He didn’t frown, he didn’t complain (mostly), he didn’t try to take charge (mostly).
Be patient until the coming of the Lord. Make your hearts firm, do not complain, and take, as an example of hardship and patience, the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
Jasper is the prophet’s name. Back at home, he helped saw two circle holes in our puppet theater. Margaret said she needed help taping a label on some cranberry sauce. “I’ll help you!” he said eagerly. We found his Christmas Pez machine, and he had his daily ration of that particular kind of sugar. He found our biggest apple and began gnawing his way around it in his determined, circular way, making a path in the wilderness, a highway in the dessert (oops). He grabbed his yellow Hot Wheels car and screamed in remembrance.
Grandma hid his chocolate milk and then he found it, hiding behind the lemonade in our little child-level refrigerator. “You’re jokin’ me!” he shouted at Grandma. They were both laughing. She asked him to put away the scissors, and he knew right where to put them, making funny sounds like he was an airplane diving.
What did you expect to see? Someone dressed in fine clothing? They are in palaces. This is the one about whom it is written: Behold, I am sending my messenger ahead of you; he will prepare your way before you.
Kids play, prophets prepare the way, Jesus comes healing everyone. We dance and dance, taking our parts, waiting for the kingdom of heaven.
Jasper is eating his giant apple again.
(Isaiah 35, Psalm 146, James 5, Isaiah 61 (Luke 4:18), Matthew 11)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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