225BatonRouge.com - Blogs

Christmas is coming fast and furious and it’s got me thinking a good bit about the Christmas story. Since I myself am large with child, I can’t help but think of Mary in the Biblical story. Despite the facts, years, and miracles that separate our mothering journeys, there are some universal experiences that all mothers share.

I cannot help but wonder how she must have sat gazing at her belly pondering at its contents. Despite having been through childbirth once before, it is still unbelievable to me that a few short weeks (or less) from now, we will have a new family member and will have begun the process of getting to know who he is. I am so curious as to who he will be, what sorts of quirks and tendencies he’ll have, how he will be similar and different from our first, etcetera, etc. There’s the fear factor too of how we’ll handle having two children, how they’ll react to each other, and the anxiety of simply managing the physical reality of birth and its aftermath.

Of course, all of this pales in comparison to what I imagine Mary must have imagined when she wondered about who the child within her might be. It’s one thing to have a home pregnancy test inform you of an impending birth and quite another to have an angel on hand. What must it have been like to imagine what the incarnate God might be like as a baby and to know that he was in your womb? What would it be like to look ahead to the mothering journey knowing full well that the child in your care would be unlike any other? I may think that I’m uncomfortable in the throws of late pregnancy, but how about traveling long distances on a donkey in such conditions, not to mention giving birth in a barn? I may fear doing something wrong in rearing my child, but if that child is the Son of God, somehow I think the anxiety would be almost overwhelming. Yet this teenage girl had faith, and that faith was rewarded in the honor and pain of forever being Mary, mother of the Son of God. I am awed, humbled and silenced in the face of such faith.

The pending arrival of our child draws me in to the miracle of the Christmas story in a deeper and more personal way than ever before. It’s given me a new perspective on the season and reason for deep thanksgiving as I reflect upon the blessing of the children bestowed upon our family as well as the blessings Mary’s son bestowed upon our world.