Advent Love

Written by Stephen Cole

This year I am struck by advent and Christmas in a new and extraordinary way because I am experiencing it through my eyes but now also through the perspective of my 6 month old son. I want to spend a short time describing to you how his infant perspective has shifted my matured, and much of the time, cynical or anxious view of experiencing the present and of hoping and imagining the future to come. Let me immerse you in his little mind that helps baptize me in the grace of Christmas this year.

When I look into my son’s big bright blue eyes— that flutter quickly when you get up too close— my world slows down. When I tell him “I love you” and his little face lights up and a large baby smile takes over his entire face and prominently highlights his twinkling dimple—my world slows down. When I repeat the same funny word or kiss his face so my beard stubble tickles his cheek and he giggles with all his little might asking for “another!”—I get to repeat a same joyous moment over and over. Just 6 months ago I would not spend an entire hour or two laying on the floor laughing and singing and rolling around with joy welling up in my heart.

The love of a child, both loving him and being loved by him has entirely changed my everyday and has entirely transformed by ability to experience love in the present. I wonder if maybe there is another child, a baby, that does the same for the entire world, for everyone, for you and for me? I wonder if the King of the world, Jesus Christ, coming into our present lives as an infant is and was so purposeful and so incredible that his presence would have the power to entirely transform our view of the present this Christmas. This present moment, even in all of its hardship, worry, or sorrow can be transformed by his love. Just as my son’s tiny presence subversively slips into my daily moments reminding me what love is—wrapped up in his smile and giggle that has the power to stop time.

Living the past months with my son has also changed what I imagine the future to look like. The goals and dreams my wife and I have now also include him.The love we have for him and the love he brings into our lives allows us to envision and imagine a future that is full of brightness and deep moments of love. Don’t get me wrong, there have been many hard and even sorrowful moments trying to have and then starting to raise a child this year, but those moments have created a deep rooted love. And that love is one that has me completely revision and reimagine the future that it might be even more full of deep reaching moments of transformative love. I wonder if maybe the child-Christ existing in our history, and the truth of his existence, might transform how we imagine and envision our future? That it might be more full of deep redeeming love that heals, comforts and brightens our sad faces that they might smile again?

Let me leave you with a story. 

We took our son to see his great grandma (Lola) while we were in Charlotte to visit my family. Lola recently lost her husband (Lolo) of many years and has now experienced holiday’s without him. She has lived many years and has much to be sad about. But when she sees and holds her great grandson her face loses years and brightens 10 shades! Her smile cannot be hidden and her laughs erupts more often than not. Her hands that hold many years of arthritis and pain feel new again and strong enough to hold the little one and feel his soft pudgy thighs and belly bounce on her lap. The love of her entire life is on full display transferring into his innocent and receptive face that then blows a big raspberry of joy making Lola laugh yet again. Her life is still so full of purpose and love and she is deeply reminded of this when she holds her great grandson. 

We also took our son to see his other set of great grandparents over Thanksgiving, one of which has recently suffered and is recovering from a stroke (Papa), only to be followed by another surgery, both episodes leaving him feeling weak, incomplete and both bodily and mentally spent. Though he is recovering, he explained to me he does not feel well like he used to. He expressed that though he feels God’s providence sparing him and bringing healing, he still feels frustrated and oftentimes not quite himself. Despite this confession, when he held, talked to, and kissed his great grandson that all melted away. The presence of an infant in his life allowed him to experience deep love that changed his physical demeanor in the form of a smile and strong upright posture, and that changed his mental demeanor causing him to speak words of love with a joyous and happy tone that made both he and my son laugh and smile. Both Lola and Papa have lived lives full of joy and hardship, love and sorrow. Both, like many of us, currently feel the weight of sin, mortality and the hardships of life on their bodies and in their minds and hearts. But the presence of their baby grandson changed all that in just a few moments this year. And if you ask either of them, they would say that the reality of another baby, Jesus Christ, is what has completely changed their lives and has filled them with love and joy over the years despite hardship and sin, and that their lives are still full of deep love (as see with their interaction with their grandson) because of a God that cares for us.

As we wait this advent season, let the love of Jesus enter your reality that you might experience the love of an infant that came in the past, that changes your present and that brightens your future. The kind of love that makes even the hardest thing pale in comparison to the smile that just might take over your face and the warmth that just might enter your heart as you remember the transforming love of baby Jesus this year. 

Isaiah 9:6 “For to us an infant is born, to us a son is given…”. May that truth transform your past, present and future.