Some children see him dark as they

Our five year-old Josh continues to be pretty fascinated with the lives and abilities of superheroes.  He was so excited to get a Spiderman shirt for his birthday in October.  I talked to him about how Spiderman is a hero who wants to protect people’s bodies, but Jesus is a hero who wants to save people’s souls, too.  A few days after this conversation I told him, “Josh, you look so handsome in your new Spiderman shirt.” and he said, “Mommy, for my next birthday I want a Jesus shirt. I need to see what God looks like.”  You and me both, Josh.

It made me think about the first Christmas after we brought Josh home from Liberia.  I was beginning to see our traditions in a new light.  I had become increasingly uncomfortable with our nativity set that featured a blonde haired, blue eyed, clearly not Jewish baby Jesus.  I briefly considered taking a sharpie marker to darken him up a little.  I realize Jesus wasn’t African anymore than he was German, but I was starting to see the need we all have to identify with his humanity in a way that makes him personal and real.  In the years since that first Christmas with Josh I have come to love the Christmas song “Some Children See Him”.   The lyrics speak to the need children have to picture the baby Jesus as a child just like them and it’s such a beautiful thought to me.  In a very real way we need to know that the incarnation was about God becoming one of us and even if that doesn’t mean he looked like us in his specific ethnicity, he did take on skin just like mine.

I hope that as Josh grows he will continue to form a picture in his heart about what God looks like based on the Biblical picture we’re given and on the grace God has shown in Josh’s own life.  What a beautiful God we serve.