Join All Nations this Advent season to consider again the story of Jesus’ arrival in Bethlehem – how His peace unfolds, to whom His arrival is announced, and what it means for you today.
Our Advent theme, “Emmanuel Still: The First Advent Still Speaks” was inspired by Kelley Nokondeha’s excellent book. She says: “The first advent was about the arrival of God into a world of woe, and every advent since invites us to grapple with what Jesus’s coming means to our fraught landscapes now” (p. 13).
Advent Week 2: God Who Knows Your Pain
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“Embedded in the deepest memory of God is the sting of trauma. And this is what also infuses the gospel narratives with hope. The God who experienced this particular pain knows how to redeem it” (Nikondeha, p. 160).
Jesus’ birth didn’t mean the end of trouble. Shortly after He was born, King Herod went on a campaign to kill Hebrew little boys. Jesus’ family was forced to flee as refugees. The Roman empire continued to oppress and traumatize many, possibly including killing Joseph and leaving Jesus without His human father.
Did you ever wonder what Mary’s life was like before the angel appeared? Nikondeha says, “We first meet Mary as an adolescent girl from Galilee….. [S]he was shaped by her place of origin. She saw soldiers riding into town, terrorizing her neighbors in the name of peacekeeping. She witnessed uncles humiliated and cousins hurt as a result of the soldiers’ presence. She watched women taken by force to be punished in unspeakable ways…. [S]he experienced the push and pull of war and resistance that shaped the villages of Galilee” (p. 54).
Like many alive today, Mary saw many people close to her traumatized by the empire that held the power, and would have been affected by what she saw. Research tells us that the trauma of our parents is often passed to the next generation – by the instinctual responses of the parents, or even through DNA.
More than ever in history, trauma is being researched and spoken of today because so many people find themselves in stories of violence, shame, and instability. It is incredibly powerful to realize that we have a God who has experienced pain and loss – and had it in His bloodline – just like us. It’s not just that He sees our trauma. It’s that He experienced it in His own body, in His own family. And He is uniquely able to redeem it and give us hope.
Scriptures: Lk 1:26-38, Mt 2:13-23
Further Reading: Two traumatized Sierra Leonian women, Beza & Jira, encounter Jesus’ hope and peace in Turkey. Read Here.
REFLECT
How does this image inform or expand or challenge your idea of Mary’s life? And Jesus’, to have similar sorrow and trouble in His family life?
Questions for reflection:
- Have you ever considered that Jesus also experienced trauma? What difference does it make to you to have a God who has had that experience?
- Can you name a time of trauma in your life – when you felt helpless and were abandoned by potentially protective caregivers? Bring that experience to Jesus as one who has lived experience with trauma. Ask Him what He wants to say to you.
- Dream with God. What grand reversals, or injections of hope and peace into hopeless situations, would you like to ask Him for – in your life, in your family’s, in the lives of others you love? Ask Him for faith to pray and believe that He can do it.
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Works Cited: Nikondeha, Kelley. The First Advent in Palestine: Reversals, Resistance, and the Ongoing Complexity of Hope. Fortress Press, 2022. Kindle file.
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On Giving Tuesday, All Nations Kansas City will launched “Emmanuel Still”, a year-end giving campaign! You are invited to multiply the stories of people around the world who get to experience for the first time that Jesus is, indeed, Emmanuel – still.
