For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 9:6

God came to earth, not as a king, not as a conqueror, but as a baby. As a woman who has birthed two children, I am here to tell you that birth and babyhood are intensely physical things. As a woman in labor, you are the definition of vulnerable. Inhabiting the thin space between life and death, you are forced to trust the hands assisting you. You give your body, your dignity, your very life into the hands of those taking care of you.

As an infant, you are utterly defenseless. You can’t eat, can’t exist, without hands to assist you. To clean you and rock you and guide you to nourishment. A newborn needs the hands of others to survive.

As do we all. Whether we admit it or not, humans are, by nature communal. We need others to flourish. We depend on relationships for our health, physical and emotional. By showing up as a baby, God is affirming our interdependence. Jesus as God needed others to survive. And he humbled himself to allow this vulnerability to take place. For needs to be met. For love to be embodied in the form of diapers and blankets and swaddling clothes.

What hands embody love for you? Who are the people that sustain you in your life? Have you immersed yourself into a community of interwoven relationships, or are you walling yourself off from the hands and hearts of others?

God, by nature is communal. Three in one. And we are created in God’s image. In need of connection, incomplete without giving and receiving love. This may feel like vulnerability, but what if it is actually strength? Allow yourself the gift of needing others, and watch the truth of God sharpen into focus.