We had a wonderful Christmas, despite our not being able to travel to be with family. Thanks to modern technology like the webcam, we still felt like we were right there with my family in VA and Rick's parents in the DR! And we still had our quiet, special Christmas with our perfect, innocent baby boy, not unlike the baby born so long ago in Bethlehem. Having just given birth to Carson, I had a new perspective on how Mary and Joseph may have felt. Labor and delivery of my baby was not easy for me... it was so painful I had flashbacks of the event every time I tried to sleep during the weeks afterwards!! If it was that hard for me, imagine how Mary's experience must have been, she being so young, without a hospital, doctor, midwife, mother, or even a bed. I imagine she had moments of intense fear and pain. But I also imagine that she sought a divine reassurance that all would be well, and that she relied on her faith. And as wonderful as it felt to finally hold Carson, I imagine that Mary's joy was even greater as she held the Son of God in her arms.
Randy Travis sings a Christmas song called "Labor of Love" that helped me to reflect on Mary's example. Some of the lines are:
"It was not a silent night. There was blood on the ground.
You could hear a woman cry in the alleyway that night on the streets of David's town.
And the stable was not clean and the cobblestones were cold
And little Mary full of grace with tears upon her face had no mother's hand to hold."
"It was a labor of pain, it was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark with every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love.
For little Mary full of grace, with tears on her face
It was a labor of love."
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