Dependent

I just spent the last 45 minutes working on our 2023 taxes and submitting them via “E-file”. Thank you, TurboTax.

This year is the first year we can claim a dependent, and while watching my son kick the colorful keys on his piano mat this week, that word wandered into my mind and I began to fathom…

The God of the universe, Sovereign King, Creator of All Things, chose to become dependent. He entered our world as a baby, the most dependent of all His “very good” creation.

Babies are dependent on someone to fulfill their every need. For food and feelings fulfillment. For comfort and clothing. For hygiene and health. For safety and shelter.

God doesn’t need anything, yet He chose to become a baby who needs everything.

I also began to think (I must have been in a thinking mood) that the Bible doesn’t share much about Jesus’ early years as a dependent.

All we really know is the magi visited him when he was a young toddler, giving him a late baby shower. Then, there isn’t really anything else about his childhood until he gets separated from Mary and Joseph and stays in the temple to talk with the priests in his Father’s house. Then He grew in wisdom, stature and favor with God and people.

That’s about it regarding Jesus’ childhood. So we may wonder.

We may wonder about Jesus’ terrific twos. (He couldn’t have had the terrible ones, because He was a sinless man). We wonder if He scraped His knees. Did He hunt for snails and slugs? Did the Maker of Adam have acne? Did the Multiplier of the Loaves and Fish fish with Joseph?

We can only wonder.

Then, I wondered if there is a reason for the limited excerpts about Jesus’ dependent years in the Bible. Instead, we are given glimpses of His humanity. How He saw the crowds and felt compassion for the sheep without a Shepherd. How He wept when He saw Mary, Martha, and Lazarus’ friends crying and grieving their brother’s death. How He cried from the cross, “I’m thirsty.”

We don’t really see His dependency, but we see His humanity.

And we are left to wonder. The God of the universe, Sovereign King, Creator of All Things, did choose to become dependent, so we could become dependent on Him.

And because He became a dependent, He experienced humanity to its fullest-feeling our feelings, battling our battles, yet without sin, so He could save us.

Maybe we aren’t meant to marvel and wonder at His dependency, but praise and thank Him for His humanity.

What Immortal would step into the mortal?

What Deity would die for dirty, dying, denizens?

What King would cast away His crown to carry a cross?

What Lord would lay down His life for the less than?

Jesus.

The only Divinity that can don the moniker Immanuel. The Only God with us. The only Deity who dared to get His divine hands and feet dirty on our turf. The turf He spoke into time.

Again, maybe we aren’t meant to marvel and wonder at His dependency, but praise and thank Him for His humanity, so we can solely depend on Him.