I bring you good news of great joy for all people.
If an angel appeared to me with good news of great joy for all people, I would definitely think they were selling something, something that probably won’t work.
But that’s not to say I wouldn’t buy it.
I’m starved for good news. The local news is fed by police scanners, which seldom alert to good news. The national news is all war, hate, a seemingly inexorable march towards authoritarianism, and the occasional sad polar bear on a disappearing piece of ice. What even counts as good news in a world that seems intent on destroying itself?
Photo by Luis Cortés on Unsplash
I’m so starved for good news that when I move from doom-scrolling to Instagram, my skepticism drops away and the sweet promises of influencers sound like the best news I’ve heard all day.
Have you seen the tooth tray thing that you put toothpaste in and then you fit it in your mouth like a retainer or fluoride treatment, and it brushes all your teeth at once in 30 seconds automatically without you having to move your hands? Good news! This toothbrush thing is going to change my life. My oral hygiene will be better and I will save 30 seconds twice a day. Great joy!
Have you seen the one-size-fits-all jeans beautifully modeled by women of—verily I say unto you—all sizes? Great joy for all-sized people!
Have you seen the pillow cube? It’s designed to fit exactly in the cube-shaped area between your neck and shoulder, thereby curing you of snoring, neck pain, and the thing where your arm falls asleep when you lay on it. Joy! Joy! Joy!
Except. The toothbrush thing didn’t really have bristles long enough to credibly brush my teeth. It buzzed, but nothing really got clean. The jeans may have fit everyone else, but they did not fit me. And, it turns out, neither the pillow cube nor the spot where my neck meets my shoulder is actually shaped like a cube. The pillow is okay, but I have not been cured of anything. Oh, and also—it’s been way more than 90 days, and I am decidedly not ripped.
I mean, part of the problem is my expectations. I think if I had been there with the angel, I would have been ecstatic to hear that our savior has arrived (Alleluia! Take my money!) and then a little disappointed to find out the savior was born this actual day in Bethlehem as a baby and the savior-ing isn’t really expected for another 30 years or so.
But I wasn’t there, with my modern, overnight-shipping type expectations. And the shepherds didn’t seem disappointed at all. They ran to Bethlehem to see this baby. I guess since they didn’t have experience with Instagram, they were more willing to take good news at face value even if it came in an unusual package. Maybe they were excited about imagining a future different than the present they were living in. Maybe hope was the good news they needed.
And maybe they were showing up to help. Babies don’t just turn into saviors. It takes time and effort to help little ones develop their potential—miraculous or otherwise. It takes an actual village of people investing in them, teaching, guiding, loving them. Maybe the shepherds ran to Bethlehem to be that village.
And when they went back to their sheep, the experience of hope and being a welcoming community for the baby had changed them and the way they saw the world. They couldn’t stop talking about it for one thing. They told everyone they saw about the baby. (Again, no Instagram. They had to just tell people.) I wonder as they went home spreading joy and good news, if they were inspired to make the world a little better for this new baby. More joyous, more welcoming, more alive to hope.
Maybe we wouldn’t be so starved for good news if we welcomed every child with expectation, community, and a willingness to build a better world for them. Imagine: You are good news. You are a miracle. You have the light of God in you. I love you more fiercely than you can imagine. You astound me with your wisdom and your gifts. You will eventually pass your driver’s test. You bring me great joy just by being you. I’m so glad you are here. You give me hope for the future. I want you to live in a world without war, hate, division. I will work to create a beautiful, loving, sustainable world for you and for all people.
I’d buy that.