Jesus' Phone Number

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During our Christmas lunch this afternoon, my mom read the Nativity story from the book of Luke. She explained to my nephews that Christmas was celebrating Jesus' birthday, that we celebrate him coming to earth as a baby to rescue us. To punctuate the joyous news in a concept that the three and five year old crowd could understand, the adults around the table shouted out birthday greetings to Jesus.

Happy birthday,Jesus!
Thank you for saving us!
Happy birthday to you,happy birthday to you!

My five year old nephew proceeded to ask his father if we could call Jesus to wish him a Happy Birthday.
"What is his phone number?" he wondered.

We all chuckled.

I said, "Well, Jesus doesn't have one. He doesn't need one because we can just talk to him out loud or from our hearts and he'll hear us."

Of course a concept like Jesus having a phone number could not be ignored in my goofy family, so we ran with it.

Brother-in-law1: What if He did have a phone number and we could hear his voice?
(We all agreed it'd be nice to hear Jesus' voice.)
Dad: We could call him any time...
Brother: 1-800-call-God
BIL2: "You're receiving a collect call from Jesus Christ. Do you accept the charges?"
Me: That'd be a really expensive call, considering the LONG distance.
Sister: Technically not, since He says he is always with us, so He could be calling from right next to you.

This is the kind of bordering-on-sacriligious conversation that my devout Christian family has once in a while. I like to imagine that Jesus was laughing along with us (or rolling his eyes at our silliness). Regardless, I came away from the banter wishing that we could sometimes hear Jesus' voice as clearly as chatting with him on the telephone.

Even through the hypothetical ponderings, I felt reassured that the compassionate, all powerful, wise God, promises to be with us always, "even to the end of the age." There is much focus on the end of mankind, the earth's apocalypse, the horrors that people inflict on one another, in America's movies, news, and public discourse these days. When I can't fathom the state of humanity's affairs, it is a comfort to know that Jesus is not only within "calling" distance, but he is right here walking with me amidst the mess.

On this Christmas day, 2012, I am thankful for Christ choosing to be present with us in our darkness to bring His great light. We now have access to speak with the God of the universe because as my BIL2 stated, "The long distance call to speak to God would be so astronomical we could never pay it, but Jesus reversed the charges onto Himself for our behalf so we can freely speak to him."

A five year old's question about Jesus' telephone number was the lesson I needed this Christmas.


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