The Faith of Jesus

Do you realize that in a slightly different time, in a slightly different place, you would have had the opportunity to actually hold in your very arms...baby Jesus?

There was a time with this newborn baby boy was being passed around, held in the arms of those who would love Him...of those He would love. There was a time when He was swaddled in cloth diapers, a blanket draped loosely around His tender flesh. There was a time when He did everything that little babies do. 

When He would look up at whoever was holding Him with those big, innocent eyes. When He would coo at their touch, smile at their sing-song voice. When He would naturally wrap His little fingers, all together, around one big finger caressing His face. Can you imagine? Jesus Himself wrapping His little fingers around yours! There was a time when He would breathe that great, big, deep sigh that babies have as He fell asleep in the arms of one who He simply trusted, fully and completely. 

Oh, baby Jesus. 

And it's that last little bit that ought to get us. It's those last few words that ought to make us catch our breath. Because the very first thing that Jesus did when He came as a human baby into a manger...was to trust you completely.

He trusted that you could handle Him. He trusted that you would care for Him. He trusted that you weren't going to harm Him, even though He knew the kind of death that He would encounter. Long before you wrapped your arms around Him, He wrapped His little fingers around you. Long before you clamored through crowds to see Him, He giggled through coos to set eyes on you. 

Before He asked you to show Him all of the broken places of your life, all of the shame that you carry, all of the burden you bear, He bore to you His tender places and trusted that you would take care of them. He knew that you would take care of Him. 

Think about that for a minute. Think about the kind of love it takes to come and to say, before I ask anything at all of you, I'm giving you all of Me. I'm trusting you fully right from the start, praying that one day, you will trust Me back.

Before I show you who I am, I have to remind you of who you are. You...are the kind of person whose arms I can fall asleep in. I'm just that into you. I'm just that sure of you. 

Jesus is that sure of you. So sure of you that He believed in you before He ever asked you to believe in Him.

Just something to think about.