A Love Like No Other

Happy Christmas! 

The wind is down and the moon is up: all is calm, all is bright.

I have been deeply moved by a little baby boy who arrived in the 855 neighbourhood a matter of weeks ago. His parents had yearned for a child for years and now, incredibly, just in time for Christmas, they are holding their son in their arms. He was given to them to love and to cherish. He was destined for this family.

As I listened to the Christmas story last Sunday - the greatest love story of all, Pastor Allan said - I realised that adoption is at the heart of the story of Christmas!

The first love we see in the Christmas narrative  is of a man for his betrothed, who - he had been informed - was pregnant. Joseph was understandably shocked, confused, crushed. Of course he was going to have to break the engagement; he had the right to have her stoned, according to the law of the day! 

But he loved her. Despite this apparent betrayal, he resolved to break their betrothal quietly, in order to mitigate her pain and her certain suffering in society.

Troubled, he went to sleep. And in his dreams he was visited by an angel who told him not to hesitate to marry his love. She had not betrayed him. She was carrying the Son of God.

And thus we see the second great love of the story - Joseph's love for his God. He awoke from his dream and never looked back. He married the woman he loved, but he didn't consummate their marriage until after she had delivered her baby.

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Ahh, that baby! The love Joseph had for him! He could never have predicted how his heart would be rocked to its core by something so little, so dependent on him, so precious. "I can't even!" exclaimed tiny Rio's mom, and that's exactly how Joseph must have felt. He adopted this child as his own, and it was Joseph who taught the little fellow everything he could. He taught him his trade, carpentry. But he also taught him how to read, taught him the sacred texts, taught him how to be a man. He showed him how to treat women - with respect, as an equal, without judgment. He showed him the love of a father for his son. 

As Pastor Allan said, there was never a more influential father in the history of humankind.

And then there was the baby's mother. From the minute she started to show, eyebrows were raised. Months were counted off on fingers. If not Joseph's then whose? 

The talk never died down, even when her son was grown and off on his own mission. She would travel to hear him when she could; she heard the retort they spat at him that day: "We are not born of fornication …" and the stabbing pain in her heart returned as she tried to catch her breath at the injustice, the hurtfulness, of it all.

Over the years she would think long and hard about all the things she had experienced since she agreed to be the mother of this child: her cousin Elizabeth's proclamation; Joseph's steadfastness; the stable; the glittering kings from the east with their unusual presents of gold, frankincense and myrrh; the megalomaniac ruler who decided to slaughter any threats to his position, resulting in her, Joseph and the baby acquiring refugee status in Egypt where, unable to work, they were bankrolled by those same, extremely expensive gifts; the annual pilgrimage to Jerusalem where this boy of hers went missing and where they found him, three days later, discoursing with the leaders in the temple (the boy's respectful but firm reply, "Don't you know that I must be about my Father's business?" had caused her to glance over at Joseph. She saw her husband's dear face registering his understanding, his acknowledgment that this son - loved fully with his whole heart from the moment he helped deliver him - now had a higher claim than Joseph's paternal authority on his life. But he would never stop loving this boy. He was his son. It was a love like no other.); the slurs and innuendo that surfaced from time to time when people felt the need to "put him in his place"; right up to his death on that splintered cross where he remembered her and - in a strange parallel to his being given to her from the beginning of his life to be cared for - gave her to his dearest friend to be cared for until the end of hers.

She was a quiet, humble woman and she kept all these things in her heart. But she never, for one moment, doubted the plan for him. She never, for one moment, stopped loving him.

The next person in this love story is God himself. Despite his being holy, unable to tolerate evil and sin, he loved us. And all of us can acknowledge that we have messed up more than a few times in our lives! Back before the story of Christmas people all around the world, from every culture and religion, had been trying to atone for their wrong doing, trying to live a good life, to make things right the best they could so that they could gain the favour of their deity and be assured of a safe landing when they died.

The birth of this baby in the manger was the beginning of the end for humankind to have to try to find a way. This baby was God, who - while never losing his deity - became human to reach us, to provide a way for us to be able to reach God. 

Pastor Allan commented that the text Billy Graham used more than any other in his sermons was this:

For God so loved the world 

that He gave His only begotten son 

that whosoever believes in him 

shall not perish, but have everlasting life  

He loved the whole world, and his birth son died to take away our sin - which is what separated Him from us - so that we could be forgiven, freely enjoy His love and one day be with Him where He is.

He knew there were people who would reject him outright. He died for them anyway.

People who would mock him and scorn this "plan of salvation" and yet continue with their own plan to fill the God-sized hole in their heart that yearns for lasting peace. He died for them.

People who would raise their eyebrows and query what was so special about this particular man. He was used to raised eyebrows. He died for these people too.

He loved … the world. The greatest love of all.

The last participant in this love story can change the whole outcome, and it's us. We have been created with agency, with free will. We can choose to accept this gift - the first Christmas gift! - or not.

Pastor Allan told us we can come to God as children and simply say, "Will you be my Dad? Can I be your daughter? Can I be your son?"

And when we accept his gift of salvation He adopts us into his family. That baby in the manger - himself adopted by Joseph so long ago - becomes our elder brother. We become equal heirs with him in all that our heavenly Father has to give his children.

And it's not "in spite" of our being adopted, Pastor Allan went on, with a catch in his throat. It's because we are adopted. 

Pastor Allan should know. He and Dina have adopted their three children. 

God should know. He gave his son up for adoption. 

The greatest gift of all.