Yesterday I had the privilege of babysitting Abigail while her mother did some shopping. It's been a long time since I had a baby in the house, but a mother never forgets how to care for an infant.
Neither have I forgotten some of the thoughts I had the Christmases I had a new baby, especially those who were born in the fall and were still tiny and helpless at Christmas. Holding a newborn at Christmas helps to bring the true meaning of Christmas to life. This was even more so yesterday when I held this long-awaited little girl who was born in answer to prayer. The Jews had waited thousands of years for God to answer their prayers to fulfill His promise to send the Messiah. And when He did, they couldn't believe it because they were not expecting the Messiah to come in the form of a tiny newborn Baby.
This morning I spent nearly an hour hunting a poem I remembered from those Christmases years ago when I had a newborn. I finally found it in a yellowed paperback book of meditations for new mothers. This was written at a time when mothers (like me) did not have nurseries but put the baby in a crib beside their own bed.
Within the crib that stands beside my bed
A little form in sweet abandon lies
And as I bend above with misty eyes
I know how Mary's heart was comforted.
O world of Mothers! blest are we who know
The ecstasy--the deep God-given thrill
That Mary felt when all the earth was still
In that Judean starlight long ago!
Anne P. L. Field (1874-1947)
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