God in the Cradle: Reflecting on the Humanity of Baby Jesus

by Emily Carle

Luke 2:15-21, New Revised Standard Version

15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17 When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19 But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. 21 After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

I really wish it was more common in Christianity to think about baby Jesus. Like, actually think about Jesus as a newborn human. Sure, the songs say he was meek and mild, but let’s consider the reality of things.

Our baby Jesus was exactly that: a baby. If we truly understand God to have come down as a human, that means God-as-Jesus existed just as human babies do. Jesus would have cried through the night. He would have sucked from his mother’s breast. He definitely could not have wiped his own bottom. He probably kept Mary and Joseph awake. And I am positive they watched him sleep with awe. God-as-Jesus was fully reliant on another person – a (gasp) woman no less – for his very survival as a helpless infant. I love thinking about God in this way. It brings comfort to know that when we say God has an intimate understanding of what it is like to be human, it’s true.

God knows what it is like to be vulnerable. God knows our messiness. God knows life is not always glamorous. God knows the “really real” of existence. What wonder is it, when 32 years later, Jesus will say to his disciples, “my body, broken for you” when Mary was the first to break her body for him?