REFLECTIONS
December 11, 2005
 
 
You have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus
Luke 1:30-31
 
 
Carrying the Christ Child
Part two in the series Preparing for Christmas
 
Mary was just an ordinary girl, living an ordinary life. She was preparing for marriage. Her mind was on wedding day preparations and the week of celebration that would honor that glorious day. She was thinking of building a life with Joseph, of making a home, of having a family and nurturing it. If her mind worked anything like mine, she would never have imagined a call to carry the Christ Child.
As a good Jewish girl, she knew the Scripture. Mary knew the words of Isaiah 7, “the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” The prophecy was made so long ago and seemingly for a time yet so far away. “Surely God had someone else in mind to carry the Christ Child, not me,” she must have thought.
Such thoughts surely continued for all of those nine months as Mary carried the Christ Child and felt him move and grow within her. And she kept him a secret as best she could for people would not choose to believe a virgin could be with child. But in time, it was a secret she could not keep.
I wonder if God gave her other daily reminders or if the angel occasionally returned to give her comfort. I wonder if she truly believed each day that she was really carrying the Christ Child and that she was preparing to deliver Christ into the world. I wonder if she really understood that she was preparing for Christmas.
Well, I don’t know what it was like for her. I only know what it is like for me. It is not easy to believe that I have found favor with God and that He has chosen me to carry the Christ Child. When I was unsure of it, I just sat still. I felt Him move and grow within me; and “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (John 14:20) 
Like Mary, I kept him a secret as best I could for few people would find me worthy of such a call; but in time it was a secret I could not keep. I have been called to carry the Christ Child, and to be one that delivers Christ into the world. 
I am preparing for Christmas. And so are you.
 
“You are the light of the world,”
Richard Ì


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