Eternal Parent - Advent 16
Am I an orphan to this existence?
For unto us a child is born. A son has been given.
And His name shall be called:
EVERLASTING FATHER
No one really knows what happens to Jesus’ dad Joseph. He’s around at the beginning when Jesus is a kid. But then he’s absent from the story during Jesus’ ministry years. He most likely died. There are legends and rumors and such… but no one really knows.
A parent is weird relationship. You have parents. They eventually die (like everything) but they’re still your parents. Also if you partake in naked midnight wrestling, you can become one yourself. It’s scary, wonderful, risky, completely humbling and de-centering, and at times entirely engrossing. I’ve already been interrupted seven times just writing this far.
But one thing never changes: you HAVE and/or ARE parents forever.
You came from somewhere, and if you produce life, you will ever be relationally connected to that life you made. You can never stop having parents. And if you have children, you will never stop being parents.
Jesus died a single man with no kids. And yet this prophetic word calls him “Everlasting Father.” I don’t think think the mystery of this title will come to any full understanding anytime soon. But let us receive at least a smidge of this wondrous mystery:
Jesus is forever relationally a child of parents.
and…
Christ is forever relationally a parent to all of creation (John 1 if you’re looking for the cosmic sex story).
Therefore the Incarnation of Jesus Christ is the answer to our deepest question….
“Am I an orphan to this existence?”
His two-fold answer comes to us in the record of his life lived out in ancient palestine, and in his very cosmic presence NOW through which all things were made. He can never stop having a father, and He can never stop being a Father.
And out of all the titles we could have given Him, apparently “Father” was one of the ones we needed the most.
May you live into your true inheritance as the beloved offspring of the Maker of all things.
These meditations are a freely given visual offering for this Advent season.
Thank you for following along.
Most of them originated from my book Honest Advent….
Which is available where all books are sold.
