Excerpt from John 3:1-17

"For God so loved the world that God gave God's only son, so that everyone who believes in him might have eternal life."

Reflection by Martin B. Copenhaver

By happy coincidence, a number of people I care a great deal about are expecting their first child.  But the word "expecting" is a funny expression to use in reference to pregnancy, particularly pregnancy with a first child, because there is so much that you cannot expect.  You cannot expect what the child's gifts or temperament will be.  You cannot expect how much your life will instantly and permanently change.  You cannot expect fully how much you will love this new being. 

And, in my experience, you cannot expect how much having a child makes you feel vulnerable to the hurts of the world.  Before our children were born, the world and the people in it seemed to have limited power to hurt me.  I faced risks with a certain equanimity.  After all, what's the worst that could happen?

That changed when I became a parent.  My protective love for my children suddenly made me feel, through them, quite vulnerable to the hurts of the world.  Through the eyes of a protective parent, I began to see all the ways someone can be hurt—by hot words or frozen silences, by little betrayals, by loneliness, failure, rejection, disappointment, not to mention injury, disease and death.  The world seemed like a much more threatening place than it had before.  That's because, when you have children, it's like your own naked and vulnerable heart has been sent out into the world.  And, as much as we may try, our ability to protect our children is so very limited.

And that is how I understand—still dimly, but at an almost visceral level—what it means to affirm that God sent God's own son into the world.  That is, in Jesus, God sent God's own naked and vulnerable heart into the world.

Prayer

Thank you, God, for loving us so much that you were willing to make yourself vulnerable for our sakes. 

About the Author Martin B. Copenhaver is Senior Pastor, Wellesley Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Wellesley, Massachusetts. He is the author, with Lillian Daniel, of This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers.

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