God puts his child in your arms

God puts his child in your arms.
Today. Just because God can. Without even asking you.
You had no chance of defending yourself against it.
And now it is there.
You look at it and you don’t really know what to do with it.
It’s yours, unprotected. It doesn’t defend itself against your tenderness. Tolerates that you pamper it and make it kitschy and thereby completely harmless. And even that you forget it, it takes it all, this little child of God.
And by the way, you don’t really have any time for this child. Your home is not clean enough. All the Christmas cards have not yet been written. The last argument with a loved one is still ringing in your ears. And anyway: you have way too much to do with yourself. And this year is so hard anyways. What is this child doing here?
But God put it in your arms.

Isaiah 9,6a: For a child has been born for us, a son given to us

God puts her child in your arms.
In these arms that love to hug.
That hang down when you can’t do anything anymore.
The arms you show when you roll up your sleeves. In your arms, she put her child.
God puts her child into arms that help an old woman in the nursing home to sit up. So that she can see the Christmas tree in the hall.
God puts her child into arms that are fully packed with presents for the nieces and nephews.
In the arms that pack groceries at the store and carry packages to our doors so that we can stay safe.
God puts her child in arms who don’t know what to do with themselves because there is nobody to hug, nobody to cook for.
God puts his child into arms that are crossed and want nothing to do with him.
In arms that call for help.
But also in arms with machine guns over their shoulders.
God puts his child into the arms of the world.
A world where children have no place. Where they have to be quiet and inconspicuous.
Where everything is supposed to be perfectly planned. For the adults, not for the child.
Where kids have to fulfill their parents’ dreams. While other kids have to play in the dirt in refugee camps. They got used to it - even to the sad faces of their parents and grandparents.
Where kids have to wait at border fences and walls and in detention centers. And don’t know whether they will ever see their families again.
Where kids cling to the rickety edges of the boat that is supposed to take them across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe. To a better future that doesn’t want them.
God puts his child in every camp, every detention center, every boat.
God puts her child in the perfect little beds in townhouses and in the intensive care unit at the hospital with their ventilators. God doesn’t make a difference. Her child belongs everywhere. Even where it doesn’t belong.

Isaiah 9,6a: For a child has been born for us, a son given to us

Yes, it doesn’t fit into this world. It has never fit in. Not in Isaiah’s time. Not in Mary’s time and not in ours either.
It bears strange names that don’t really suit this baby.
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
A bearer of hope that cannot bear all the longing.
The name of a world that has no chance among us. Because this child is not a hero of war, not a triumphant, not a rider on an elegant horse with drums and trumpets, but a bringer of peace.
One who comes on the donkey. Who even has to flee into Egyptian exile with his family.
And ultimately and naked dies on the cross.
God himself. The child of God.
And precisely because it doesn't fit into this world, it comes into this world. Into our arms.

Isaiah 9,6a: For a child has been born for us, a son given to us.

God puts her child in your arms.
So vulnerable - that’s the only way it will touch your heart.
And you know: this little one matters.
This little one in you. The tender in you. What makes you vulnerable.
You don’t have to play the strong one anymore.
You don’t have to protect yourself anymore.
You don’t have to play a role anymore.
You can just be God’s child. Embraced in God’s love.
And so, this child of God in your arms, in your heart, it does not fit into this world.
And that’s why you cannot leave this world as it is.
There must be no wars anymore and no drowning refugees and no kids taken away from their parents.
Nobody should be deported to a war country anymore. And nobody should have to follow his parents’ career plans.

God puts her child into your arms and you know what to do.
Whether your living room is tidy and decorated or not: it doesn’t matter!
You make your way to the grumpy neighbor and leave a flower at her doorstep.
Maybe she’ll stay grumpy. But maybe she will smile.
You wonder who to call. Maybe somebody you have fought with this last year.
There was so much to fight about. And then you call and work on your relationship and share stories from back when.
And because the child of God is in your arms, you won’t go along with any kind of fear of Black and Brown people. Rather, you say out loud that fighting racism and helping those in need is not a luxury that we only allow ourselves if we can afford it. You say it out loud but with love.
It makes you cry when you see the pictures from people suffering and they are tears of anger and love.
The child in your arms won’t let people who need help be played out against each other. Its love is great enough for everyone.
And this little child of God doesn’t allow you to despise others for their beliefs.
Because they are children of God - just like you.
You realize that this child is not at all harmless in your arms. Vulnerable yes, but quite powerful.
It changes you.

His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore.

This child will live. With you and for you. And for this world into which it does not fit and yet belongs. Like no other child in the world.

Isaiah 9,6a: For a child has been born for us, a son given to us.

God puts her child in your arms.
You look at it and it takes you in. Entirely. You can feel the love for it in your body.
It looks at you, you child of God. With light in your heart. It changes you. You open your arms. And you change the world. With this child.

Isaiah 9,6: For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.