If You're Waiting For A Christmas Baby
She was pacing plank floors, at every turn stopping to watch at the window, wait. The rain was coming down in rivulets on glass falling free from low December clouds. She turned to see me come into the room and our eyes met for just a moment and I could see, sometimes the waiting isn't what brings you low it's the worry.
"Are you getting nervous, Hannah?" She looks away from me, into the drops pressing on glass.
"Yeah. I guess I thought she'd be here by now,"
"Me too. But babies take time."
We wait together, watching for signs of my eight year old niece's grandma to come to get her and her siblings so that they can meet their new baby brother or sister at the hospital.
Waiting and worry, they go all too well together. Do all Christmas babies come this way? With so much wondering and waiting and even worry?
And hadn't I been doing some worrying and waiting of my own just a moment ago?
When you're waiting on God for something, how do you just keep waiting and not worry whether or not it will come to pass?
The words that bubble up from deep in my spirit, this echo from Ecclesiastes 3 :11, I speak out loud, "Lord, I trust you, that you make all things beautiful in your time. I trust you."
Beauty out of broken plans.
Beauty out of broken dreams.
And then there was another mother, another Christmas baby.
This mother, Mary, when she heard the words of the angel greeting her, she too worried and wondered.
"Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said, "Do not be afraid, Mary, 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 1:29-31
And Mary, she wondered, "How can this be?"
But the angel said, "Nothing is impossible with God."
And Mary, she just believed. She answered, "I am the Lord's servant, may it be to me as you have said."
This surrender was a surrender to give up her plans and her ideas of beauty.
Her perfect wedding, ruined.
Her perfect husband to-be planning to break off the engagement.
Her perfect life that she dreamed up, all falling to pieces around her.
And yet. She just believed.
She trusted God.
And in this releasing of her plans into the divine will of the Father, she finds the Perfect. The Perfect Son of God. How many times, I wonder, do I hold on so tightly to my plans for perfect, when it's really just the Perfect Son that I really need.
In my wondering and my worrying do I too hear the voice of the angel speaking, "Fear Not! For nothing is impossible with God."
This letting go, it means letting God have is perfect way in us. No promises of perfecting our dreams, but only His, for His ways and His thoughts are so very much higher than mine.
Do I trust Him enough to believe that even if the answer is forever "no", it is a "no" for my good and His glory?
Will I as Mary, surrender and keep on surrendering my plans so that beauty can be birthed from all that is broken?
In laundry piles and dirty diapers and mess and chaos, will I just trust, that God is here.
God is here.
Emmanuel, God with us.
He has come to save us from us. From all our sin and mess and all the stinking, sin-stained world, He came.
He comes. God with us.
Finally, the good news comes. The wait for this Christmas baby is over.
"You have a new baby niece! Her name is Madelyn Renee and she's just perfect."
In the light of Christmas, all the wondering and waiting, they birth life.
And if you've been waiting for a Christmas baby, behold, He comes, to dwell with us.
The Good News of Christmas is that God is finally here.
He came to us.
And He comes to us even in the midst of our mess, He comes to bring life to us forever.
His birthing making our waiting so very worth it.
And like Mary, when we just trust in His perfect grace, we see all the waiting become beauty in His time.
"Are you getting nervous, Hannah?" She looks away from me, into the drops pressing on glass.
"Yeah. I guess I thought she'd be here by now,"
"Me too. But babies take time."
Waiting and worry, they go all too well together. Do all Christmas babies come this way? With so much wondering and waiting and even worry?
And hadn't I been doing some worrying and waiting of my own just a moment ago?
When you're waiting on God for something, how do you just keep waiting and not worry whether or not it will come to pass?
The words that bubble up from deep in my spirit, this echo from Ecclesiastes 3 :11, I speak out loud, "Lord, I trust you, that you make all things beautiful in your time. I trust you."
Beauty out of broken plans.
Beauty out of broken dreams.
And then there was another mother, another Christmas baby.
This mother, Mary, when she heard the words of the angel greeting her, she too worried and wondered.
"Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said, "Do not be afraid, Mary, 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 1:29-31
And Mary, she wondered, "How can this be?"
But the angel said, "Nothing is impossible with God."
And Mary, she just believed. She answered, "I am the Lord's servant, may it be to me as you have said."
This surrender was a surrender to give up her plans and her ideas of beauty.
Her perfect wedding, ruined.
Her perfect husband to-be planning to break off the engagement.
Her perfect life that she dreamed up, all falling to pieces around her.
And yet. She just believed.
She trusted God.
And in this releasing of her plans into the divine will of the Father, she finds the Perfect. The Perfect Son of God. How many times, I wonder, do I hold on so tightly to my plans for perfect, when it's really just the Perfect Son that I really need.
In my wondering and my worrying do I too hear the voice of the angel speaking, "Fear Not! For nothing is impossible with God."
This letting go, it means letting God have is perfect way in us. No promises of perfecting our dreams, but only His, for His ways and His thoughts are so very much higher than mine.
Do I trust Him enough to believe that even if the answer is forever "no", it is a "no" for my good and His glory?
Will I as Mary, surrender and keep on surrendering my plans so that beauty can be birthed from all that is broken?
In laundry piles and dirty diapers and mess and chaos, will I just trust, that God is here.
God is here.
Emmanuel, God with us.
He has come to save us from us. From all our sin and mess and all the stinking, sin-stained world, He came.
He comes. God with us.
Finally, the good news comes. The wait for this Christmas baby is over.
"You have a new baby niece! Her name is Madelyn Renee and she's just perfect."
In the light of Christmas, all the wondering and waiting, they birth life.
And if you've been waiting for a Christmas baby, behold, He comes, to dwell with us.
The Good News of Christmas is that God is finally here.
He came to us.
And He comes to us even in the midst of our mess, He comes to bring life to us forever.
His birthing making our waiting so very worth it.
And like Mary, when we just trust in His perfect grace, we see all the waiting become beauty in His time.
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