When I think of Christmas, I think of the least of these. I think it is because I hate the conventional form of Christmas. For years and years, I’ve let the convention of Christmas rob my joy. Christmas as a child was magical, but when I grew up, it wasn’t so much. I wrote about it last year. That’s the link. Go read it, I think it’s good.
So when I worked as an engineer, which in my mind seemed like an eternity, but was only five years, I always tried to head up the Christmas giving for kids each year. I collected money, adopted kids, and then got to take off work and go shopping for them. It gave me an exponential amount of joy. Back then, I was single with no husband or kids, and I envisioned the children waking up so happy and excited to receive all of their goodies.
Now, I am married with kids, and I am a lot more jaded and cynical. Sadly. We still adopt a child and provide their Christmas for them, but instead of envisioning a child waking up excited and joyful, I sometimes wonder if they wake up ungrateful and wishing that I purchased better brands for them. Sometimes this is as close as I get to “the least of these” all year or so I think, and I wonder if instead of being poor kids who are happy to get whatever, maybe they are more like my kids. I will say that my kids usually practice gratitude on Christmas morning, but not always throughout the year.
I don’t understand why God has given me a heart for the “least” and then I don’t get to serve and live among them, until I realize that I am least. My kids are the least. And every single one of us walking is least.
But aren’t we also rich? Aren’t I also rich in Christ? As people of the in between, we have dual positions. I am poor, but I am rich in Christ.
This paradox presents itself further when I realize how little I enjoy serving myself in the least position or in serving my family when they are in the least position. Yet, where I am is where I am called. Sometimes, I look at my family, and I am deeply saddened by what we’ve become. A completely normal American family, mind you, but this war I am waging with Christ for the hearts and minds of my children for Christ is a hard and weary one. I’d rather serve the other “least of these” and not my own.
But with those things are the purpose of this series.
First, before I start, I will tell you the goal of this series. I believe that Jesus’s coming to earth was God identifying with man in our weaknesses. The older I get both physically and spiritually, the more I understand this. As a baby Christian I questioned how God really, truly understood what it was like to be me, especially as a woman. But as I grow in my faith, this truth has become important to me, and I think it is the reality of the Christmas story. Can we fathom what it is like for God to be a man? to be one of us?
So often we do not treat people well because we see people as other, as different, as less, as more, as something else. Sometimes, I see people of the Christian faith, who’ve been around the Christian circle for a while, forget the identity they once had. The one where they were weak and lost and needy. I think sometimes we as Christians do not understand the importance of our depravity. Once we become Christians, we are no longer depraved, but we must not forget. We must always remember our depraved state. We must remember because it helps us identify. We must identify because Jesus identified with us and made us His ambassadors. As Christians, literally meaning, “little Christs,” we must always identify. This is how they will know we are Christians – by our love for one another.
So my goals in this series are fourfold. To serve you, my readers, by
- helping us remember our own individual depravities
- identifying with those who are still depraved, recognizing sometimes we still are (we are in between)
- telling the Christmas story creatively and uniquely
- moving you (and me) to action in love and discipleship of “the least” of these, even if or when “the least” is ourselves.
Ultimately, I hope that in learning to see and serve the least of these, you will be filled with great joy!
I love your heart, my friend. Looking forward to reading and being moved to help others.
Thank you, Barbie! I love yours as well!
Dear Jami,
I understand your internal struggle. Serving the least has become a siren call for me in my heart , then every ministry plan or opportunity simply departed at a very difficult time in my life. But God never departs or His leading good Spirit. He has given me a very simple , unfancy, ministry of prayer. Often by myself, but increaingly with a few others. I minister to my children, my husband and the body of Christ by cultivating and obeying The Prensence of The Lord in my home, every single day. Dont miss this. I am looking forward to reading your series.
Cheers!
Leah