Advent: Expecting Something Else

How often do we miss what we are looking for because it doesn’t look like what we are looking for?

Imagine the arrival of first the shepherds and then the wise men. Their expectations were set high by signs in the heavens – songs and stars respectively – only to arrive and find…a baby, a young child. Not particularly auspicious, not very kingly, looking for all the world just like any other baby – just like any other two year old boy. Simple, common parents, as shocked by their arrival as they were by arriving. Simple, even humble, surroundings.

The shepherds were undistracted by the trappings of that first moment. The crowds and noise of a small town bustling with a population swollen to many times normal. The small cave behind the house that formed the birthing room. The smell of labor and delivery still hanging in the air. The young mother, weary apprehension shining dully in her eyes as she glanced quickly between them and her husband. That good man standing as tall and big as he could to protect his new son and wife, rugged carpenter’s hands clenching and unclenching. They were, after all, shepherds. Not the kind of visitors one might expect – or want.

The wise men can be excused for trying Jerusalem and a king’s palace first. After all, where else should a king be born? By now, the father and mother had stopped searching the eyes of their son for indications of His origin. They had stopped their late night talks in bed about…well, you know. They had settled into familiar routines – as familiar as any routine can be with a child under the age of two. The boy looked up with mischievous eyes through the blackness of his hair and quickly got to his feet to greet such strange visitors. As he did, they noticed the scrape on his left knee and the smudge of dirt on his cheek. Not quite what they were looking for.

To their great credit, neither the shepherds nor the wise men said, “There must be some mistake!” Instead, they told their stories and left their gifts, their treasures – and worshipped. Whatever it was they were looking for did not blind them to what they actually saw.

This advent season, let it be so for us.    

Used by permission of Experiencing Worship.
Bill Dogterom is professor of pastoral ministries and the Chair of the Department of Leadership Studies at Vanguard University in Costa Mesa, CA.