Crossing lines

Jesus' birth crosses all the lines of convention. He is a king born in an animal stable. God's son born and entrusted to human parents. His parents have to flee with him to Egypt in order for him to survive as a child. He becomes lost in Jerusalem from his parents and we get a glimpse of teenage superiority to his parents when found.

How do we not see in this story all the lines being crossed. That God would trust the simple and poor, that even with that they had to flee and be foreigners, immigrants to another country? We look at the scene and think when Jesus comes we'll recognize him, but we don't even recognize him in the stories we read from his life.

How many homeless do we help with a stable, or how many immigrants do we welcome and feed, or do we see the homeless teen and talk with them as an equal? Where do we see Jesus? In only the privileged, in those that don't question our beliefs, in the easiest people to love? Do we dare to look for Jesus in the simplest places?

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