From Scott Erickson's "Honest Advent"
It’s interesting that the way Jesus came into the world didn’t please everyone.
All of Josephs family was in Bethlehem for the census, and you’re telling me not one cousin, aunt or uncle offered their bed for their pregnant relative?
Maybe you’ve feared, just like I have, that your choices, identity, transformations would influence your family to put out the No Vacancy sign at the next gathering.
Some of us have made choices in the pursuit of wholeness that there’s no turning back from. Some of us have awakened to conclusions about our identity that make loved ones we’ve known our whole lives uncomfortable or silently distant. Some of us have transformed so much from what we once were that we don’t even know how to talk the same way we did back then. It’s a weird thing to be - to be a being, I mean - and to discover, honor, and embody the reality of that beingness that we’ve been given to be.
While it’s true that His incarnation was sung by a chorus of angelic hosts, His incarnation uncomfortably confronted many societal assumptions as well. And yet His incarnation was given a way, and beloved, your incarnation will be given a way too.
Your incarnation - the beginning of who you will become - may happen in the small town where no one expects anything like that to be birthed, but it will not go unnoticed by the heavenly hosts. In fact, they may even sing over it!
A small group of people, possibly strangers, will witness it and dance a jig because of it.
Some elders in your community may see your small incarnation and whisper prayers of thanksgiving for witnessing your humble revelation.
And later on, in a way you least expected, international travelers may offer you precious gifts to carry you to the next phase of your life.
The Giver of your incarnation will provide room for you too. It may not be the one you imagined. Or the one that pleases everyone. And it may leave you uninvited to your own family reunion. But it is the incarnation you have been given, and it comes with good news of great joy.
May you receive thanks for the gift of your incarnation.