I became a new Mom last October! This season, it would be impossible for me to not think of the nativity story and the birth of our Lord Jesus in a new light! (Luke 2)
To think that Mary the Mother of Jesus as she was due to give birth, had to walk all that way from Nazareth to Bethlehem! This is one thing that I am really pondering this season. They had something like a donkey or a mule to help her, but honestly, I am not sure what's worse walking a long way or riding a donkey while pregnant. One time, we walked 1 mile from our home when I was about 6 months pregnant and was nearly panting and out of breath to where my husband had to nearly carry me! The Braxton-Hicks contractions are no joke!
I wonder what was she thinking? How did she pray for strength in that season of her life? Was she neurotically worried about accidentally killing the Son of God before His time as most new moms are? Was she overly worried about such things as getting him onto a god sleeping schedule? Did she and Joseph stay up into the wee hours of the night feeding and changing diapers? Mary was in such an amazing season and faced with so many challenges and changes for her young heart: a new marriage, her growing belly filled with a promise to change the world, the visits from the angelic beings, a near-divorce before her marriage. She then went on a long journey with Joseph her husband to be counted in the census at Bethlehem. She traveled with him by walking and by riding on a donkey as pregnant as she was! There was most likely the realization that she was "hidden" and well-protected as the mother of the King of kings when she and Joseph found themselves without any place to stay on the night she gave birth to this beautiful King of kings. No one recognized that the baby inside of her was the Son of God, the savior of the world! If thy had, inn keepers would have paid them to stay there so that they could be a part of the historical event.
Mary was forced to go low in humility and give birth to her baby, the Son of God in the equivalent of a parking garage. She then swaddled him and placed him in the feeding trough for the animals.
The Lord placed this song in my heart-- "Breath of Heaven", arranged and performed by Amy Grant and originally composed by Chris Eaton.
A simple prayer, and perhaps similar to a prayer that Mary prayed in her heart as she pondered all that God was doing in and through her:
'Breath of Heaven
Hold me together
Be now forever near to me,
Breath of Heaven.
Breath of Heaven,
Lighten my darkness,
Pour over me your holiness,
For you are holy,
Breath of Heaven.'
What do you need strength for today or tonight?
I encourage you to reach out to the One, who gives and sustains life: God our heavenly Father.
Prayer
Heavenly Father, I ask for grace and strength over each reader of this blog. I pray that you will overcome them with Your peace, Your LOVE, and the fulness of who they are in You, Lord God.
May Your name ever be glorified on earth, as it is in heaven.
Amen
Breath of Heaven, Amy Grant singing, photos from the movie "The Nativity"
