A Human Hand Wounded
Today Christians celebrate the incarnation: God becoming one of us. I have to confess that I am desensitized to this reality. To remedy this I thought about reviewing the history of Metaphysics (ultimate meaning), Epistemology (inquiry into human understanding), and Ethics (nature of morality), just to help me get a conceptual grasp of the radical gap that exists between God and humanity. Graciously, it didn’t take me long to realize that my struggle is not conceptual in nature; rather it is a matter of the heart. It is because of the hardness of my heart, and the comfort I have with my half-life that the awe of Christmas remains on the border of my experience. I think I remain in this place because I honestly wonder if God truly is good. I know what theology and doctrine says about this matter, but my heart is much slower than my mind when it comes to processing truth.
In spite of what I just shared I don’t think all is negative. In my thirtysomething odd years I have at least come to the place where I know that my struggle is not going to be resolved through information and analysis. Instead what I see is a human hand, wounded by my wounds, reaching out and into the place of resistance, fear, and broken trust. What I see is a process that is drawn from the life of Jesus (from cradle to cross to resurrection) and being written into my life. It is a process that is intimately human and transcendently divine, and one that leads me to engage and contemplate the slow unfolding of my own life that I may learn to trust beyond what I can understand or express.
