7 pound 8 oz sweet baby Jesus
Dec 15
We sang Christmas carols in church yesterday. Normally I hate this. I know, Scrooge right? I also hate singing patriotic songs. Send me to Gitmo now and save our country the heartache. Anyhow, I guess I just don’t feel the emotion in those Christmas songs – like we might as well be singing Jingle Bells because Away in a Manager carries the same emotional significance for me. All of the Christmas songs are simply something I’ve memorized over the many years but don’t take to heart. I could file them under: things that take up space in my brain where important stuff could reside, like understanding cell mitosis or how to balance a checkbook.
Absentmindedly fumbling through the church bulletin, I was barely paying attention to the words of the song as I mouthed them from memory. Then it struck me. The similarity – how have I missed it all these years? You see, there is a moment, when a child enters this earth that is positively spiritual. There are no words to describe what it feels like to labor in so much pain, and then suddenly to be handed a wiggling, crying little baby – a baby that is part you and part your mate. You don’t even bother to breathe in that moment as this life is passed through you, into the world and then into your open arms. It is the perfect moment, different with each child but equally brilliant with light.
As a pregnant woman you spend 9 months wondering about that baby inside you, dreaming of his/her face and praying for 10 fingers and 10 toes. When you hold that child for the first time, the rush of love and expectation is so great it could knock you over if you weren’t already laying down. The weight of the moment overtakes your soul like a storm and you are defenseless in its’ wake.
Thus was my experience with an “ordinary” baby. A baby that will grow up to be a sinful human like the rest of us. So what, must it have been like when the only perfect baby was born? What hallowed ground must Mary and Joseph known they were on? How desperate in labor and how fulfilled in delivery must Mary have been? What must it have felt like to be handed the King of the Earth, swaddled and warm?
I can’t fathom the feel of the air that night, electric with Joy that earth’s only true King had been born amongst animals and sinners and hay. Every mother believes her baby is one of a kind, but imagine Mary’s jubilation as her faith was rewarded with a bundle of grace and spiritual royalty. Hallowed ground, indeed.
As this realization twinkled then grew bright as the sun on my mind’s horizon, I was suddenly filled with a new understanding for these old Christmas hymns. In fact it was a Silent Night, Holy Night. I do desire to Come and behold Him, born the King of Angels. There is Joy to the world because the Lord is come, let earth receive her King!
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Jenn, your gift with words does not cease to amaze me! Really… please don’t take it for granted. I hate blogging about big events because I never make them justice. I’ve already been drafting in my head the post after this baby is born because I just want it to make people feel what I felt… and there you go in a 3.5 seconds and spit it out with all the ease in the world. Might have to hire you to write my blog for me!!