Deep-End Discipleship

 “ Jesus matured in wisdom and years, and in favor with God and with people." - Luke 2:52 CEB - Christmas is done and we focus so much time on little baby Jesus! We quickly skip from the baby to the adult Savior that walks on water, feeds multitudes and asks tough questions. For this reason, I love this reminder in the gospel of Luke. Jesus matured! Jesus did not just come out of the manager ready to go. The early church had a hard time canonizing stories of Jesus as an elementary aged kid or even a middle-schooler.  Any of the surviving stories pair the growing mistakes of children with the power and mystic of a God in human form. Some have Jesus using cosmic powers to prank his friends, other has Jesus creating doves out of dust. Overall they just come out feeling weird. No wonder the early church did not find them useful to put in the Bible! I like to think that this verse from Luke really connects how Jesus lived into the divine/human balance. As Jesus ...

“ The Lord your God is in your midst—a warrior bringing victory. He will create calm with his love; he will rejoice over you with singing.” - Zephaniah 3:17 CEB - I love getting packages! Something about even the expected order from Amazon that is sitting on your doorstep is great! I think I am joined by many, many others for whom just the sheer joy of opening a package is fun. Even if you think you know what you are getting, opening it in person is filled with just a moment of the unknown. Will it be what I think I am getting? Is it what I imagined it would look like? Do I even know or remember what this package might be? The physicality of seeing the package revealed paired with the actual moment of claiming what is yours is wonderful. Obviously this raw giving nature of Christmas taps into just this with wrapped gifts and surprises. What I think is so tricky about Christmas for us at times is that we have had to open the same package from God over and over again. “O...