So I’m a few days late, but Christmas is a time of year when the world remembers the miracle of the incarnation. God, who is infinitely infinite, packages Himself into the tiny, helpless form of a baby. With no earthly father to claim, He is born of a virgin – IMPOSSIBLE and yet apparently, with God, nothing shall be impossible! He is born to live as our example and die for our salvation.
This season has also had me thinking about babies in general because seven close friends and family have recently delivered or are expecting soon. By close I mean the ones who tell you personally, with a phone call, rather than you finding out on facebook or through the grapevine kind of friends. Seven! A perfect number. It rivals the number of weddings I had to attend this year!
With so many of my friends expecting, I can’t help but think about what it means to carry a human being in your belly for about 38 weeks. I mean, it’s an entire other being living, growing inside of you! So I’ve taken to asking the question – what does it feel like to have a whole ‘nother human growing inside of you?
All the answers I receive are insightful, but one of them got me thinking, big time. She said, firstly, you don’t really think about it except when it’s causing you discomfort, but what’s crazy is that, without you exerting any effort, this being inside of you is developing arms, legs, brain etc. When you think about accomplishing things in life, you have to exert effort to get a worthwhile result. And yet, when it comes to bringing another human being into the world, for those 38+ weeks, you don’t actively do anything to create what you deliver at the end. It’s truly a miracle.
The miracle of birth is probably the most overlooked miracle God performs on a daily basis! Yet how it should remind us of that greatest birth of all time, those near 2,000yrs ago. And how it should inspire that miracle God can work in our lives as we accept Christ into our hearts and almost imperceptibly, He works out our salvation with us. Because, you see, even though the mother doesn’t per se do anything to develop that baby, she must still cooperate with the process.
It reminds me of the lyrics to one of my favorite Christmas hymns:
Thou didst leave Thy throne and Thy kingly crown,
When Thou camest to earth for me;
But in Bethlehem’s home was there found no room
For Thy holy nativity.
The foxes found rest, and the birds their nest
In the shade of the forest tree;
But Thy couch was the sod, O Thou Son of God,
In the deserts of Galilee.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus,
There is room in my heart for Thee.