Nativity
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| Calyn about one hour after birth |
1. (noun) The process, circumstances, and place of one's birth.
2. (noun) The coming into life or into the world.
For Christians, of course, Christmas culminates in the coming of the Christ child. But, I think it is imperative to remember that as much as we try to make Christmas about flaunting and fulfilling our images of perfection, that originally it actually must have been pretty un-idealistic circumstances. You know...the unwed teenage mother has her baby in the donkey's dish without any birth attendants.
This is not an anesthetic, sterile, or managed experience. Rather it seems that it was most likely animalistic, alarming, unpredictable, and empowering. These are the circumstances where that child, whom we call God, came to dwell. And ours are the situations the people, whom God calls children, are called to live. Powerful.
Should this not make us revere the birth process and women's roles in it a bit more? Check here for some ways we can do that more.
The years that I have had a baby at Christmas, I feel these dichotomies acutely. It also feels that God and others are nearer in this season; perhaps as a more loving spirit permeates everywhere. In that magic of the incarnation God dwells with us and also in us. In Les Miserables they say "to love another person is to see the face of God." Always I have believed this to be true, especially of a baby. Interestingly the Indonesian people of Bali also believe that a child is a full deity for the first 6 months of life (Thank you Eat, Pray, Love). (Hard to not believe so, really.)
So as the new year begins, welcome new life and see if you can feel the presence of those who have gone before especially close to our world, dwelling on the edge.
O holy Child of Bethlehem, descend to us, we pray...O come to us abide in us, our Lord, Emanuel.
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