The Nativity Census: Jesus Counted

This week we Daily Fast Fuel gals continue to focus on the unsung players in the Nativity narrative. This week’s player? The Census.

I’ll be honest. I’m having a hard time concentrating tonight. What does an ancient collection of numbers and stats have to do with my heart at this present moment? I have hardly slept in days and the only numbers and stats I seem to be able to focus on are 6 adults, 20 six and seven-year-olds, and 1 nation in mourning. You could say I have “lost my Census”. (Yes, I went there. I needed a bad pun to break through the grief for a moment. I can only bear it in doses.)

So what does the Nativity Census matter to me? Allow me to share with you my distracted and somewhat disjointed reflections:

The Indiana Jones in me would like to say there was a census mentioned in the story so that some day we might find record of it and see little ole Joseph and Mary listed right there with a wee babe…like finding an ancient “leaf” on Ancestry.com. Up pops the census record, and there it is…proof of Jesus’ existence!

But that’s not really His style, is it?

Alrighty then, let me go for the more subtle answer. The Census was about being counted.

Jesus was born for such a time that he could be counted among us.  As one of us, He counted the height of the joys and the depth of the sorrows that one man may experience. As One of Three, Jesus counted the height of the joys and the depth of the sorrows that everyone had experienced and would ever experience.

It was the total sum of these figures that had him counting his steps up to the cross. To the cross He took all pain, sin and madness and sacrificed His life to rid us of such things. In doing so, He drew us to Himself with a power and a love that offer an inexplicable Hope to move forward into tomorrow.

And in these recent dark days I have been asking Jesus to remind me of what comes tomorrow. I want Him to remind me of Hope. I want Him to remind me of Love. I want Him to remind me that, in the end, HE WINS. Right now, it feels as though I am asking Him for such reminders about every five minutes or so. I need to. I am not strong enough to bear the numbers and stats we have seen since Friday. Jesus is strong enough, though. He bore all of this and more many, many years ago.

Isn’t that right, Jesus? My Savior, my Lord, my dear friend...remind me again that the victory is won…?

I’m counting on it.