Let it be with me...

by David Baer | published: Thursday, December 5, 2013, 1:33 PM

What was it like, I wonder, for Mary to feel God’s Son growing inside her? Did he kick? Did he shake and sob when disturbed as unborn children sometimes do? And when did it begin to dawn on her just what she had agreed to, when the angel had announced her part in God’s plan and she spoke those simple words, “Let it be with me according to your word.”?

Christmas is a time for gathering with our families, a celebration of light and warmth in the darkest, coldest time of the year. For us, it’s a celebration of an amazing and perplexing story: the God who shaped the universe entered into human life in a tiny, wriggling, squalling baby. But God didn’t simply storm into Mary’s womb uninvited. God asked this young woman to take part in bringing Jesus into the world... and she said yes.

And so the Christmas story is also a reminder of what God can accomplish with faithful people who say yes, who answer God’s invitation to give birth to grace in their own lives. We too can be Christ-bearers. When bread is broken and shared, whether around the Communion Table or the dinner table at the Family Promise shelter, God is alive and visible with us. When those devastated by disaster open a kit with sorely needed supplies and just as sorely needed words of encouragement, a kit such as those that the Allendale community helped us pack this fall, God is there. When we lose ourselves in joyful song at the Advent Luncheon, God is present.

I invite you, this Christmas, to consider in prayer how Christ might be asking to be born in you, as you sing these words from the carol, O Little Town of Bethlehem:

O Holy Child of Bethlehem,
descend to us we pray;
Cast out our sin and enter in,
Be born in us today.
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell;
O come to us, abide with us,
Our Lord Emmanuel!

A version of this article appeared in the December 2013 issue of the Highlands Highlights.  The artwork is from the Cathedral-Basilica of Salvador, Bahia, Brazil.