For Advent

Did Baby Jesus latch right away after birth? 

(Did Mary have postpartum depression?)

Was Toddler Jesus inexplicably fussy when He was teething? 

(Did Mary ever need to just put Him down and walk away for a minute?)

Did 5-Year-Old Jesus ever have a fever? 

(Did Mary ever worry that He wasn't gaining enough weight?)

Did Coming-Of-Age Jesus struggle to learn the words in the Torah as fast all the other boys? 

(Did Mary ever wonder if she was making the right choices in His upbringing?)

Did Adult Jesus ever feel the malaise of depression?

(Is depression a sin?)

This is His advent, His arrival - Christ in flesh. 

Emmanuel - God with us. With us in our humanity - that means blood and snot and urine and sweat and tears.

With us in our darkness.

 A Light has dawned - the Dayspring. 

A Light Who weeps when friends die, Who pleads with the Father through bloodsweat for there to be some other way, Who refuses to leave systems of condemnation in place. 

Rejoice, 

rejoice, 

rejoice. 

Emmanuel has come.