From “The Human Condition: A User’s Manual,” by Arnold Kunst
25 December
I find the following image profoundly comforting: a baby
lying in a manger, on his back, vulnerable as an upturned turtle - yet tranquil
for all that. This particular baby, born in a stable, will end up dying on a
cross and, if Scripture is to be believed, as an itinerant hand-to-mouth
preacher will have not whereon to lay his head in the middle. Translation:
Poverty of the most profound sort seems to have been
integral to everything about the person this child became. Indeed, this poverty
doesn’t seem to have been something he was stuck with. Instead it seems He
actively and willingly embraced it as a kind of liberation from a materialism
you and I find utterly seductive at our every turn. It seems the impact He had
on this world was somehow directly related to the immense power inherent in
that embracing of poverty.
This poverty bridges the gap between Him and all of us
enmeshed, as we are, in a plethora of poverties as distinctive to each as is
our retina scan. And finally,
Maybe you and I can become strong in our weakness[es] as He
Himself apparently was.
Yes, vulnerable as an upturned turtle - yet tranquil for all
that.
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