Christmas Hormones

Christmas songs tend to make me more emotional than usual this year. This probably has more to do with my raging hormones than anything else. But the hormones are actually part of the equation–I’m 7 months pregnant. And many of the worship songs I’m hearing lately talk about baby Jesus, so it doesn’t take long for my waterworks to start spilling over. Especially if my baby boy gives a kick or roll as I’m singing along.

Seriously, last Sunday I lost my composure during a simple song about God reaching down to save us. While the song may have been simply constructed, the content was nothing of the sort. The words conveyed a wondrous truth–God’s grace come to me (and you) through Jesus the God-man. That’s not simple! That’s amazing, incomprehensible, earth-shattering! Songs with that message should reduce us to speechless, weeping puddles of gratitude. As messy as my face was after that song, I was glad that my pregnancy was helping open my eyes to the truth of God’s grace.

Each night during Advent, my husband and I tell the Christmas story to our kids in tiny increments, from the angel Gabriel’s announcements until finally the wise men have made the scene. As the days go by, the kids remember more and more details of what they’ve already heard, and they are able to share occasional insights. Some of these are funny, as you might imagine coming from a 4- or 5-year-old. But with all our focus this year on pregnancy and babies, my 9-year-old son was newly impressed by the manger scene. He commented the other night how strange it must have been for Mary and Joseph to bow before their own baby.

I can’t remember ever thinking about their situation in quite that way. But isn’t it true? What parent can imagine bowing to their own child? Yet Mary and Joseph knew they held the Savior in their arms. Can you imagine the incongruence of knowing He was God, yet changing his diaper, wiping his nose, soothing his cries, rocking him to sleep?

One of my favorite Christmas songs that, yes, reduces me to tears, celebrates the wonder of that contradiction. Click on the link below to listen to Joy Williams’ “Here With Us” and worship the “baby born to save the souls of men.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hrcoJ-23On0