Columbia at Christmas



Well, getting ready to fly out to Portland, Oregon, for a little R and R. I have a considerably less ambitious travel itinerary this year as compared to my two last years during this season. As is becoming typical, I had car troubles and got a cold. That just seems to all coincide. I get antsy when I prepare to travel, which wears me out. I fear chaos. But, I have learned to embrace it because what is gained is worth the cost.

I get out of town for Christmas. Because our family convenes more on Thanksgiving, I typically jet-out over Christmas to elsewhere where I give myself permission to eat, drink, and be merry. I almost accidentally typed "messy." It is probably a bit more than true. I enjoy myself but then walk miles in penance back and forth. 

I usually park myself physically in some smaller type of city then do all I can to imbibe it deeply for a week to ten days. And then I pack up and head back to be it ever so humble, Columbia, Pa. Once I retire I plan to follow a similar inside-out plan. Use here as home base but then go far and wide in travel. And then return. Ya gotta be somewhere.

I love Columbia. It is a hard-luck town that is both rough and generous. This picture above about best demonstrates its contradictory qualities. The Manger Scene at a Tattoo Parlor. The Tattoo Parlor has been putting this up every year I can remember and that goes back to 1997 when I first started looking to buy property around here. 

I think Jesus, if he were walking the Earth today, would live in a place like Columbia. His hometown was Nazareth, a town where "Nothing good could come."  It was asked as a question but intended to be a statement. Columbia is charming because it is so ordinary. God loves the ordinary, and even more, the undervalued, the orphaned, the outsider. I have grown content to be here and do what I do. I don't think I will last long in anyone's memories after my demise. But, that is OK. I will be elsewhere and I don't think it is going to matter a whole lot. I have faith that God is doing good through me, even though it doesn't get much acclaim. That is so much like him. 

The scandal of the Incarnation is that God the Son humbled himself, at the point of the Cross ultimately, yet also everyday of his life. Born to a poor family under suspicious circumstances, alienated from his family while in ministry (they thought he had lost his mind), and nailed to a Cross. Rose again on the third day which showed him approved unto God the Father, and sending of the Holy Spirit to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and the judgment to come. His ultimate purpose was to sacrifice himself so that we could be restored to sacredness, which sin had taken away. Seeking to become more, we became less. He became less so that we could become more. A divine exchange.

That is a scandal because God ordained the ordinary for himself. And that is truly extraordinary. May that never become ordinary in our estimation.


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