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Christmas.

by | Dec 25, 2010 | Uncategorized

Our first Nativity set purchased on our first Christmas 37 years ago.
Simple yet very beautiful I will always put it out and alway remember the reason for the Season.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a renewed heart.

Mary’s heart ache

by | Dec 22, 2010 | Uncategorized

Very soon after the baby Jesus was born
Mary and Joseph had to leave Bethlehem in a hurry to avoid King Herod and his rulers.
Matthew 2:13-14
When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up.” he said,”take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.” So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod.
Can you imagine Mary’s heart?
A new baby is born and someone wants to kill him
what new mother wants to hear that kind of news.
This was a chosen child
the angel had told her he would be
I wonder what she was thinking as Joseph said to her “we must leave now.”
She had just given birth and her body was experiencing that recovery
and then she was told they had to leave quickly to travel nearly 200 miles on a donkey to Egypt. The road was not a paved road like we have it was rough terrain it was long and difficult and took a long time. As she traveled with Joseph her heart knew they were alone and they were running against the terror of a crazy man…King Herod.
Matthew 2:16-17
When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: ” A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are no more.”
I cannot even imagine her fear
in the middle of the night in the dark with only lanterns
her fatigue so heavy as they hurried quickly
her body rebelling against every movement made by the donkey.
She wouldn’t be able to walk herself for she had just had a baby
and she was tired and worn out from the last journey to Bethlehem.
Holding her infant close as he nuzzled in the curve of her arms
I wonder if she cried tears of sadness for this baby born to her.
Can you imagine how she would feel when she heard the cries of the mothers who had lost their son’s because of hers?
It was a constant hiding for Mary and Joseph as they avoided the dangerous men.
Can you imagine trying to raise your son in a place you are not familiar with and where you had no friends or family or anything that was yours?
She knew her son was special and she knew God had blessed her.
She also knew the shepherds had found them but her joy quickly turned into sorrow for the mothers weeping for their son’s.
Mary’s heart ache was only beginning.
For in the process of giving birth to her child she also was also in the process of giving him up.
The Savior was born
and it wasn’t until later in her life did Mary fully understand what that would mean.

A baby was born

by | Dec 20, 2010 | Uncategorized

Mary became more uncomfortable as her round frame stretched.
She waited and hoped for relief just like any other expectant mom.
I am sure she had back aches and heart aches
no different than any other mom for the first time.
As she asked herself
how will I love this child,
how will I care for him?
So many questions moved across her mind
I am sure she was overwhelmed
after all she was only a teen.
Can you even imagine delivering a baby in a barn
where animals had slept
in the midst of odors that were unpleasant?
Perhaps Joseph found a clean stash of hay
to place in a well used water trough to use as a manger.
There would be no incubator or warming lights.
There would be no soft blankets or sleepers or diapers or booties
for the tiny legs that would thrash in the night.
Was it cold or perhaps it was very warm.
There were no midwifes to help through the labor process
or crushed ice or even water to wash the baby in the completed birth.
What did Mary and Joseph do?
Custom would say that Joseph had to stay away until the birth was over…
did he do that?
Was Mary alone in the barn laboring with every contraction?
Where were her parents or friends… did they care?
What did she lay down on
perhaps the blanket from the donkey?
So many things we are not told.
So many parts of the story are mysteries.
In the city of Bethlehem there would be a baby
born in the midst of a busy time
and because of that time the stable
was the only place given to Joseph.
Mary being round with child after a long donkey ride
needed a resting place.
I am sure she was so tired and so worn from the journey
a bed of straw might have been a welcome place.
So many things not told to us about the birth of this baby.
Do we care…
are we compassionate enough to wonder
how Mary gave birth to a son
in the city called Bethlehem.
so much to think about ~so much to process.
A baby was born.