Kids these days: An Advent meditation

"About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. This was the first census when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census. As a descendant of David, he had to go there. He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant."

"While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her firstborn. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel."

(Luke 2:1-7, The Message)

What do you think of teenagers these days? To you are they overfed, under-worked, and otherwise a fairly self-absorbed lot? At times, I think the same thing. But I just think that means I'm getting older for from time to time I catch myself muttering about kids these days with their phones, their ear-buds and their snap-chatting. 

And then as I re-read the story of Jesus' birth I'm reminded that it was through teenagers that God inaugurated a new age for Planet Earth. Of course, nobody really knows how old Mary and Joseph were when Jesus was born. The Gospel writers Matthew and Luke who were the only ones to write about Jesus' Nativity didn't think that was relevant to the story so we're left to grasp at possibilities.

We live in a wonderful time for women in particular. Never before

Currently running for President

has the door been so wide open for a woman's career aspirations. Do  you aspire to be a scientist? an astronaut? a professional athlete? The sky seems to be the limit. Currently there is a female former Air Force pilot running for President - and certainly one day in our time our chief executive at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue will be a woman.

But not in Mary's day. In those times once a young girl began her monthly cycle it was time for her to settle down, get married and start raising a family. Life expectancy was a lot less in those days and it was important to get down to business and keep the family name alive. So, depending on who you read, Mary might have been 13 or 14 years old when the Holy Spirit came on her to conceive Messiah. Among our fellowship's ranks are a set of triplets who are currently in the 7th grade and 14 years old. That the idea of one of them being a bride and with child is downright creepy reminds us how far we've come in two millenia.

Mary could have looked young like this

Joseph, on the other hand, could have been as old as 30 (he was, after all, already established in his trade) but I just read a commentary the other day who speculated that he may, in fact, have been as young as 18 years old. In Joseph's day, there was none of this thought of allowing a lad "to sow his wild oats" before he settled down. After all, as the Torah so eloquently puts it, "It's not good for a man to be alone" (see Genesis 2). Better to get a young man married early to channel his normal desires in a healthy way.

Granted there were a lot of things different back then. A 14-year old young woman and an 18-year-old young man back then were, by comparison to kids today, most likely way more mature. But as I reflect on God's great undertaking to save the human race the fact that he chose two young, godly and yet inexperienced kids to steward his son until he was of age is, to me, remarkable.

When I think of most Nativity sets I've seen, our own included,

This is how we're used to seeing them

Joseph always looks so old and wise with a full beard and Mary so very maternal as if she's an old hand of bringing kids into the world. But what if they were, in actuality, kids in their teen years? What did they know about parenting? It's weighty enough to bring a child into the world but to bear Messiah, the hope of their nation, and then raise him as a son of the Covenant? That's a tall order for any couple let alone a newly married young one? 

Just think the stories that might have been murmured behind closed doors in Nazareth about how quickly the two finalized their wedding plans before heading south on account of the Census. But as far as we know they bore this all in dignified silence knowing they were part of something way bigger themselves.

Earth's mightiest heroes in the MCU

But it's just like God, isn't it?  As much as I enjoy all the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies of Avengers saving the planet from aliens and a demi-god with a serious ego problem by comparison God's way seems so frail, so flimsy, so weak. Ask a young couple to shoulder the burden of parenthood and then send them out on their own heading south to register for the Roman census while Mary was nearly at term. Yeah, he chose as he always seems to choose - "the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are" (1 Corinthians 1:27-28, NIV).

For the record the fact is I know a LOT of good teens who are well on their way to becoming fine men and women and participants in God's salvation story that He is still writing. Thank God for them - and kids like Mary and Joseph who were willing to "step off the map" as it were and take God at his word when He called on them to do so. They played a key role in the saving of the human race.

These heroes were the real deal