On December 4th I wrote “My son may or may not have made his debut by the time this post. Regardless I want to say I really look forward to having a son. It scares me. Few other things scare me anymore. I have one wonderful daughter and her mother is a awesome role model for her. My little son is going to be looking up to me to learn what it means to be a man. That is humbling.” I have a little lion cub that I have the honor to nurture as he becomes a lion of a man. This flows well with Advent.

Jesus once said “let the little children come to me.” This is a tremendously humbling statement for me. It tells me that I have a responsibility as a Christian father to help my newborn and toddler to come to God. Advent is about God himself humbly becoming a baby in a manger but it is also about his parents responsibilities. The beginning of Jesus life revolves primarily around his parents faith. It is a tremendous responsibility to be a parent of faith.

Think about it this way. Jesus needed parents to guard him and help him to grow in his faith. Even a sinless child needed discipline and instruction. Remember children can do the wrong thing even if they are not sinful things. They need correction and guidance. Jesus was fully human. In his humility he became like one of us and had to learn all things like his culture, values, and faith. These were shaped primary by his parents.

Luke’s gospel tells us that “he grew in favor with God and man.” That means that he really had to grow like everyone else. His mother Mary taught him who he was as did his adoptive father Joseph. Luke tells us that Mary “treasured up these things” in her heart about Jesus. He was nursed at the knee hearing stories of Gabriel, the angels singing, Simeon, Zacharias and Anna, shepherds, the wise men, mysterious gifts, Herod’s paranoia, flights into Egypt, and the reason for the obscurity of living in Nazareth. Joseph’s own vision likely came from the mouth of his adoptive father. Joseph adopted him as if he were his own flesh and blood son. He taught him his skill of carpentry which he continued in well after his adoptive father’s death.

As I rocked my son in my arms I could only imagine what it must have been like for his parents. They were nurturing the Lion of the tribe of Judah in their arms. To do this they needed humility before God. They were sinner in need of God’s grace to do what on their own they could not. His parents shepherded the Redeemer who was at first as helpless as a lamb. We must walk humbly before God if we wish our children to grow in favor with God and man. Our example is the babe in the manger and his parents.