Among my better loved Christmas carols is 'Born in the night, Mary's child' which speaks of birth in a borrowed room and burial in a borrowed tomb.  I like the concept of 'borrowing' in relation to Jesus, the itinerant who seems to have owned very little.  Indeed, the concept of 'borrowing' really extends from 'womb to tomb'... or does it?  If God created everything, then everything belongs to God anyway, and so God has 'divine right' to employ anything and everything.  But God has entrusted creation to humans, has somehow let go of that right without abdicating responsibility for it.  Which is why Jesus came, why Mary's womb, the Bethlehem stable, various rooms and boats, Simon of Cyrene's strength and Joseph of Arimathea's tomb (to name but a few) were borrowed, and employed, in Christ's service.  To borrow what you have made and surely, de facto, own is a mysterious concept indeed.

Yet there is something very beautiful about it too - that God would allow us to lend or even to give, by dint of our own choice or obedience, those things that to us are 'ours.'  Mary gave that which which was most precious - not only her body (as if that weren't enough) but potentially her marriage, her reputation and her life; Joseph of Arimathea wasn't so far behind really - his final resting place, his credibility among the religious leaders, his own reputation.  Mind blowing.

Another of my favourite carols is the much maligned 'In the Bleak Midwinter' with its final verse, 'what can I give him... give my heart.'  God does not simply snatch from us, God gives us opportunities to lend or to give.  All this is too big for me to get my mind around, and this is hardly a carefully considered post, there is no great pondering behind it, but to respond to God's call to employ what we have been entrusted in the service of the Gospel is, it seems, privilege indeed.