Christmas Eve 2022
“So, God, what just happened here?”
(Sketch from this evening’s Christmas Eve service.)
In every nativity scene, from the great masters to kitsch lawn ornaments, it seems like we always see Mary and Joseph and the other visitors looking down at the baby Jesus in wonder. If I were there, I’d do the same.
But you have to imagine, what is Mary thinking? She has spent the nine months since Gabriel’s visit, pondering his words, thinking about the meaning of God’s promises.
“He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.”
I’m not sure, but with her very intimate connection with the infant Jesus growing inside of her, and the knowledge of what Gabriel, and later Elizabeth had said to her, I suspect that Mary actually has a deeper understanding of who this Jesus will be than most of her contemporaries — even the ones (such as Zechariah) with significantly more education in the writings of the Torah and Prophets.
But when her child actually arrives, God in human flesh, you have to think her head must be spinning, trying to make sense of this incarnation, this God-in-wiggly-human-flesh, thing.
Can you see her taking a deep breath, hair all askew from the stress of giving birth, looking up and asking, “So, God, what just happened here?”
Merry Christmas to you, and may the sometimes unexpected (or unexplainable) blessings of peace and joy be with you in this season and through the year.