Do we see him?

I read a reflection months ago that stayed with me; 

more than that, it's haunted me. 

I found myself thinking of it while I was on Rosebud.

The reflection was written by Shannon Martin, a contemporary Christian writer.

The mis-remembering and emphasis are mine.

“Driving out of town one evening in the dusky December half-light, 

I passed a church sign with a familiar message, 

“Remember Jesus this Christmas.”

Our problem is not that we don’t remember Jesus. 

Our problem is that we don’t recognize him.

He is the woman up the street exhausted from the grind of relapse and recovery.

He is the child being detained at the border, separated from her family;

too young and inarticulate to verbalize the terror she feels.

He is the man, doubling up on socks, 

huddled in the ‘tent cities’ we try to ignore, 

half hidden by overgrowth or highway overpasses.

He is the teenager standing on the highway exit ramps, 

her cardboard sign declaring her homelessness and hunger

We remember him, of course we do. 

 But do we see him? Do we even want to?

Only Jesus can turn us away from ourselves and toward our wounded brother.

Only He could abolish the murky pasts, the missing pieces, the gaps in our understanding.

He came as a baby, but he didn’t stay that way.

We need to pluck Jesus away from the manger 

and track him in all his audacity to the margins.

God moved his kingdom into every heartbroken neighborhood 

and hides in plain sight.

I can see him so clearly on Rosebud.

Looking for him in my every day life 

back in Missouri

is far harder