REFLECTIONS

Carrying the Christ Child

Mary envisioned herself as an ordinary Jewish girl living an ordinary Jewish life. Her thoughts lingered most on wedding day preparations, and the expectations of the week of celebration that would honor that glorious day. Her dreams filled with building a life with Joseph, of making a home, of having children someday and nurturing the family. If her mind worked anything like mine, she never imagined a call from God to carry the Christ Child.

As a good Jewish girl, Mary knew the message of Isaiah 7, “the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.” The prophecy, made so long ago and seemingly for a time yet still far away, she must have wondered how a virgin could give birth to a child, and certainly she had no inkling God would choose her to to be the one.

The wonder must have continued for all those nine months Mary carried the Christ Child and felt him move and grow within her. And she kept him a secret as best she could because people would not choose to believe a virgin could be with child. But in time, it was a secret Mary could not keep.

Scripture doesn’t say, but I wonder if God sent her occasional reminders of the treasure she carried, or if the angel sometimes returned to offer assurance. I wonder if she felt worthy to deliver the long-awaited Messiah into the world and I I wonder if she knew she was preparing for the first Christmas.

Of course, 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 found favor with God and that He has also chosen me to carry the Christ Child. When unsure of it, I just sit still. Sometimes I feel 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.”[1]

Like Mary, I tried to keep him a secret since few people would find me worthy of such a call; but in time it was a secret I could not keep. God called me to carry the Christ Child, and to be among those who deliver Christ into the world.

Aren’t you too?

“You are the light of the world.”

Richard +

www.reflectingthesavior.org

[1] John 14:20

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