december two

Consider the story just for the sheer poetry of it. Jesus is born to teenage peasants under questionable circumstances. His mother gets pregnant before marriage. He's born amid the dung and straw of a stable. He's placed in a feeding trough. His brothers and sisters think he's out of his mind, and after his first sermon in his hometown, the people he grew up with form a mob and try to kill him.

. . .His entire life is about the stripping away of power and control. Jesus always chooses the path of love, not power.

Inclusion, not exclusion.

Connection and solidarity rather than rank or hierarchy.

Touch rather than distance.

Compassion rather than control.

. . . This is not weakness as we think of weakness. Jesus knows exactly what he's doing. There is a weakness that is truly weakness, that has nothing else to it - no depth, no intention, no greater purpose. But Jesus is intentional in what he's doing. His vulnerability is for a purpose.

There is a weakness that is actually strength.

And there is a strength that is actually weakness.

- Rob Bell