Every year, at the beginning of Advent, my brother and I would look forward to retrieving the family Christmas tree and crib from where they lay in a dusty corner at the back of our garage. Several attempts at propping up an otherwise defiant tree, was followed by the careful placing of the colourful decorations and half-burnout lights on its artificial boughs.

This excitement was only matched by the thrill of attentively positioning the various pasturi in their respective places of honour in the papier mache crib. The drummer boy and the donkey which both had had the misfortune of losing one or more legs would need a new plastcine prosthesis every year to ensure their continued stay in the company of the other nativity figurines. But as happens to most kids, after some days the enthusiasm would soon wane. That is when the introduction of a small toy robot or a dinosaur in the crib would reanimate our interest regardless of my mother’s disapproval ‘Dinosaurs don’t belong in the crib’ she would chide.

The Advent liturgical readings which describe the apocalyptic events surrounding Jesus’ Second Coming and the fiery sermons of John the Baptist in the arid Judean desert seem to be a bit like the ‘dinosaurs in the crib’ - they do not immediately come across as appropriate. They are in distinct contrast with our romanticised images depicting Jesus’ birth in a Bethlehem cave where the heavenly glow surrounding the holy family seems to compensate for the biting cold weather outside. Yet these readings from the Word of God have a vital message to give us: the way we respond to Jesus’ First Coming will determine what happens to us in His Second Coming (or when we appear before Him at our death).

So what exactly is behind Jesus’ first coming? It seems obvious to state that if what the world needed was better technology, God would have sent a scientist. If humanity was crying out for more ‘talk’, than the Lord may have considered a politician or a clown if what was necessary was more laughter. But our world needed to be saved from an impossible predicament from which it could not extricate itself - its separation from God, His love and His truth. That is why the angel said to Mary ‘you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’ Matt. 1:21

As everyone knows, whatever is hung on or placed under a Christmas tree are gifts for those we love. God too allowed his most precious Gift to us to be hung on a tree for our salvation, albeit it not a very ‘pretty’ one. Yet Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead for us, and Christmas unambiguously points to that right from the Annunciation to Mary as the verse above tells us. John puts it this way: God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so whoever believes in him will not be lost but have eternal life’ (John 3:16).

Now for all of us who grope in the darkness looking for the reason of existence and the experience of unconditional love, forgiveness, joy and eternal life, a Saviour is at hand. He came to rescue man from his sinful rebellious state of rupture with God and the dire consequences. Many people have heard all this stated in one way or another since their childhood but what is desperately essential is that it becomes a real, personal and tangible reality for us today. How can this happen? That is where the ‘dinosaur in the Crib’ Advent readings will not appear so outlandish after all.

John the Baptist urges us to ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.’ Mark 1:3. Surely this does not mean writing cards, decorating our homes, buying gifts and going to staff parties. To prepare the way of the Lord requires a deliberate decision to look into my own heart first and foremost. There, I may find a certain disquiet which reminds me that I am seeking something deeper. Is this the search for God and intimacy with Him? For some whose image of God is faulty or blurred, the answer may immediately be in the negative. For them God is an angry judge, an indifferent parent or a stern warden who gets unreasonably upset when a child eats a hotdog on Good Friday. Other view God as a heavenly Father Christmas, an impersonal distributor of gifts and favours whose indulgence towards his children is only surpassed by his generously loud guffaw. Yet the truth is that God is ‘our Father’ who longs for us to know Him and trust in His plan of salvation which encompasses all aspects of our life. He is truly concerned about our hurts and disappointments. However more than anything He wants to heal our erroneous ideas of Him, ideas which have been formed through our own sinfulness and reactions to suffering where God seemed so distant. To add to this we have sometimes received either wrong teaching on character of God or had his love misrepresented by the words and actions of those who in fact should have been witnesses of his grace and mercy towars us.

Since ‘God is Love’ (1 John 4:6) and love by its nature desires relationship, this is the essence of true Christian spirituality. In the Old Testament the people of God cried out ‘Oh, that you would tear open the heavens and come down (Isaiah 64:1). Who would have ever told them that God intended to answer that prayer in such an incredible way? If we take a good look at a typical Christmas card we would see that Baby Jesus is not looking down from above but actually looking up at us from below. He has made Himself vulnerable to our love and sought us out just where we are. This was His ‘First Coming’ and it is incredibly wonderful. The Three Wise Men like many others in the gospel accounts were to discover that the God whose name the Jews dared not even utter was really in their midst and it was not really they who were seeking Him but He who was seeking them.

And for us today? Jesus is still searching and many many people all over the world are responding. He sends us various ‘Bethlehem stars’ – an awakened conscience, an inner nudge, the dynamic words of Scripture, the enlightened words of others and feasts like Christmas to grab our attention. We must not think that after His Death, Resurrection and Ascension Jesus’ ‘First Coming’ was over. It extends till this day. He is still with us and can still be found by us. If we have not yet found Him His promise is ‘You will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart’ Jer 29:13. Making a straight path for Him means opening up to simple prayer, the window into our relationship with God. It means calling upon His name and discovering that to turn way from sin, the cancer of our soul, and asking for forgiveness, is the real answer to the experience of feeling homeless in our own homes. Our world today has not only lost its way but also the address. John the Baptist tells us to change direction (that is the meaning of repentance) and instead of our indifference or alienation, to prepare the way. The Word of God is our GPS and the love of the Incarnate Son of God is the destination.

Perhaps not too surprisingly some of us may feel like the dinosaur ourselves venturing into the crib. However even if the world around us chides us and says ‘dinosaurs don’t belong in the crib’ we need to be assured that the our Heavenly Father is the one who is calling us and assures us of a warm welcome this Christmas. The invitation is out. The response (or lack of it) must be ours. However one thing we must keep in mind. The Advent Liturgical readings also remind us that how we respond to the ‘First Coming’ will have eternal bearing on what happens at His ‘Second coming’ when He ‘will come again to judge the living and the dead’.

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