"The life we are given to live must be loved, whatever it brings." 
-- John McQuiston, Always We Begin Again.

 

Among my favorite stories to revisit at Christmas is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

 

The Little Prince lay down and wept at the sight of 500 roses in a garden. On the planet he ruled, he had a single rose who assured him that she was unique. Yet here were 500 roses just like her, in one garden. “I thought I was rich,” he thought sadly, “with a flower unique in all the universe.” If she was but an ordinary rose, who, then, was he?

 

Then the Little Prince met a fox that taught him an important lesson about love. “To me you are nothing more than a little boy who is just like a thousand other little boys. I have no need of you. And you have no need of me. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world, and I will be the same for you.”

 

The Little Prince returned to the garden of 500 roses and realized that for all their beauty, he felt nothing for them. But he loved his rose on his tiny planet, the one he had sheltered and cared for. “It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes her so important,” the fox told the Little Prince. “You are responsible for your rose.”

 

The Christian faith, in its entirety, rests on one spiritual proposition: When God chose to redeem the world, God did not send an army, or a committee, or a plan, but a person—one person. Jesus lived in a particular time and place. He was born of Mary. Through his singular life we see the human face of God. We who call ourselves Christians are those who feel so drawn to his life that we seek to live our lives in light of his.

 

“Lo, how a rose e’er blooming,” we will sing on Christmas Eve. “It came a blossom bright, amid the snow of winter, when half spent was the night.” There is a haunting singularity about our faith, focused on one person born long ago. Yet it is precisely the power and presence of that one life living in us that holds the promise of reconciliation, redemption, and peace. It may not feel like enough, but it is God’s way in and through us. Jesus is our rose, and we are his.