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12/23/2008
Burri: How would YOU raise the son of God?
Raising kids is hard enough – harder, in more ways, than you might realize until you’ve done it for…oh, 16 years or so. Oh, it’s rewarding, too; don’t get me wrong. Just hard. And that’s when they’re normal kids, leading normal lives.
How much harder after you add in certain...enhancers?
Imagine for a moment that before your child was born – before your child was even conceived – you knew he was coming. Somebody told you. His name; who he would be; things he would do; and that his birth is of absolute importance to everyone, everywhere. Not only will your baby be special, he’s going to save the entire human race.
Now go raise him.
Gee, thanks.
Now…oh, wait: I may have misled you just now. With Christmas coming up, you probably thought I was talking about Jesus.
I wasn’t. We might as well talk about him now, I guess – he does fit the profile. But, no, I was talking about John Connor. You know: from the Terminator. The movies and the TV series. The guy that led – or, rather, will lead – the human race in its war for survival, after the machines take over.
Connor's mother found out before he was even conceived that he was coming, what his name would be, and that he would be the lynchpin – the cornerstone, on whom the fate of the entire human race would someday rest.
Talk about pressure. Yeah, this kid is going to save us all, y’know, so try not to screw him up too much. Kind of important that he not die in a drunk driving accident (or the early first-century equivalent).
In the Terminator series, these revelations turned John’s mother into a borderline-psychotic whose obsession with keeping her son safe has had serious ramifications for his adolescent development. And even if it hadn’t, knowing that you’re raising the single most important person on the face of the Earth can’t be an easy thing to live with.
You wonder how Mary and Joseph handled it.
Did they, when Jesus was an infant, do any of the normal parent-infant things? Play peek-a-boo? Coo over his curly little toes? Smell his head? Laugh at the faces he made as he filled his diaper?
Did they discipline him? Did they have to? And how, exactly, does one take the Son of God over one’s knee?
Did they tell him what the Angel told Mary? Did he know why his childhood began in Egypt, instead of Nazareth? If so – at the risk of channeling Dr. Phil – how did that make him feel?
It’s one thing to be a normal, average teenager sitting in a school assembly. Quite another to be a teenager who spent yesterday afternoon dodging killer robots from the future, and quite another thing to know you might have to do that again tomorrow.
Now try on the whole Son of God thing.
Granted, being the mother of the Son of God must have its advantages. Sure, she’s working without a script, but it’s hardly as though she’s working alone. If God Himself put Jesus here – if Jesus is, in fact, God Himself in mortal form – then Mary didn’t have to worry so much when Jesus went off with some friends on Friday night.
She might have worried, anyway. Moms do that. But if anybody can take care of Himself, it’s…well, Him.
The thing is, Jesus didn’t start out as the robed and bearded sage who had every answer to every trick question: He started out as a baby, then a toddler, then a boy, then a young man. And he had parents, who had to raise him.
They probably hadn’t thought all of that through on Christmas morning, Year Zero. But then, how many parents – even those of us not raising humanity’s saviors – have?
Lance Burri is a contributor to the Badger Blog Alliance and occasionally blogs at his own site as well.
COMMENTS
With so many "step parents" in todays world I think it is important to recognize that Joseph was the greatest stepfather of all. Imagine being a stepfather entrusted with a Saviour.
I kind of chuckle when I think of a young Jesus and Joseph rolling a wooden ball on the floor.
And I chuckle of Joseph barking at a 3 year old in the carpenter shop "put that hammer down".
David (Tue Dec 23 08:06:45 2008)
Perfect sequel/prequel: The future tries to send a Terminator back in time to kill John Connor, but they accidentally send him too far back - to the year zero - and the wrong spot - Palestine! So the Terminator tries to explain to the locals why he's there, but accidentally invents the Jesus story. Hilarity ensues!
John Foust (Wed Dec 24 15:17:54 2008)
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