It was hard to focus this year. You know those years when the presents, the tinsel, and the hustle seems to outweigh the original Christmas? Well, if every person has to have one of those days during their life, then this was mine. No matter how many renditions of Silent Night, or forced readings of the Gospel story, I just could not get in the "zone."
It wasn't until the first day after Christmas that it hit me; Pending the correct historical dating of Jesus' birth which probably doesn't coincide with the day we celebrate (but let's not focus on that right now), this would have been Jesus' first day on earth.
Today, Mary would have awoken after a much deserved rest, possibly with some stray hay sticking in her back, and would have looked over to see Him. Not only her son, but the promised Savior of the world. She didn't know all that entailed, but she must have felt the weight of how special He was, especially with the words of the angel still echoing in her ears. Maybe she even replayed those words, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" (Luke 1:28) every day as she struggled through morning sickness and public ridicule. Yes, she would have felt how special He was.
Maybe it was His whimper that woke her. She would reach out to Him to hold Him and nurse Him. This would have been the beginning for her. She would now start to learn what each whimper, each look meant. She would get to know what He would need and when He would need it. Caring for Him would become a sixth sense to her. She would hear His cry from across a crowded room and know it was her Son.
Yet, He would know her so much more. He would know how many tears she would cry, how many days would make up her life, her sins and her righteousness. He would fulfill her eternal need far beyond a normal sons fulfillment of a mothers wish. He came to earth to establish her relationship with her God. He was Creator encased in the created; the universe in the form of a babe. But that first morning, she held the Creator in her arms. She rocked Him, loved Him, felt her heart get ready to burst with love when she looked at Him.
It may be that next year the tinsel and bustle won't distract me as much on Christmas Day, but this year, that first day of Jesus' life is what brings me to my knees; the first day a sinner held Salvation in her arms.
"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." (Immanuel - God with us) Isaiah 7:14
"And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." Luke 1:31-33
