RBWords

     A favorite family story of mine concerns one of my grandnieces when she was about 3 or 4 years old.  Her birthday was near and my mother knew that she wanted one of those "Little Red Riding Hood" coats.  So my mother got the coat and put it on a chair for Megan to see when she came into the room.  To everyone's horror, Megan burst into tears and wouldn't go near the coat.  My father guessed the problem and removed the coat and took it and put it in a dress box and wrapped some string around it.  He brought it back in and Megan shrieked with joy, tore open the package and put on the coat!  What was the problem?  The coat was not wrapped, so it wasn't a "present."  

     Jesus and John the Baptist were rejected by many because they weren't "wrapped" the way people expected.  Prophets with weird diets and strange clothing were suspected of being "possessed." (John)  Messiahs didn't come from a carpenter's family in a tiny village called Nazareth.  The teasing of the children in the marketplace which Jesus quotes shows something we all know.  Public opinion can be fickle, no matter who you are.  When we arrange the manger scene, perhaps a moment's reflection can be given to the very humble circumstances of the Messiah's birth.  The stories in the gospels according to Matthew and Luke about shepherds and Magi don't seem to have gone too far after the event itself.  Jesus' "wrapping" wasn't what many were expecting.  Do we know better?  How do we like our faith "wrapped?"  Can we see the face of Christ in someone whose appearance and clothing and conduct seem strange to us?  Perhaps this season can get us started on a new way of perception.  AMEN