Merry Christmas

Having a newborn at Christmas has been really very interesting, spiritually speaking. I had already been pondering something when my pastor spoke about the same thing I was thinking in a sermon the other day. God sent his Son, the Savior of the world, in the form of a helpless, tiny baby. Currently having a helpless, tiny baby myself makes the whole story seem so much more striking. Moreover, it makes me think of Mary.

Mary had just birthed her first baby, a miracle child. She had to go through what I think every mom since the beginning of time has gone through… imagining what her child would be. But she had a hint…

For unto you is born this day a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

A Savior. I find myself wondering now if she really had thought out what the implications of that word meant. It meant that she would help her son grow up. Change his diapers. Watch him take his first step. Tend and kiss his boo boo's. Watch him sleep at night. Tell him stories. Chaperone sleepovers. Teach him manners. Fix his meals. Make him eat his dinner, even though he really wanted candy. See, God came to earth to be human. He did everything that all human children did, except sin. He brought the same joy to his mother that my kids bring to me, and that your kids bring to you. And finally, after she had helped him, watched over him, loved him every step of the way, she had to watch him die a horrible and cruel death on a cross and could not help him in any way at all. She was the one who stood helpless at they tortured her son, unable to reach out to him, unable to hold him, he was left completely alone. I don’t think I have ever appreciated how agonizing this must have been for her- to know that the sin of man, including her own sin, condemned her son to die on that cross.

I wonder if when Mary’s cousin cried out “Blessed are you among women”, if she had any idea what that blessing would cost her, or her son?

Christmas is the celebration of a miracle that changed the world and opened a way for us to be with God forever. He has given us all life for the purpose of finding and glorifying him. Because he is so good he has given us perks- like family. This Christmas I will commit to cherishing my family even more… you never know what God will call them to do.