Here With Us

as i was getting prepared, over the last few weeks and days, to sing tonight at our church's christmas worship celebration 'Here With Us', i did alot of thinking about Mary...one of the songs i sang was 'Baby Mine', while Lindi Connally did a beautiful liturgical dance...it was a vision that my sweet husband and i both kind of came up with, as we were listening to this song that we had listened to countless times, but all of a sudden heard it with new ears...a song i've sung to my babies for years, that took on a whole new meaning as i thought about it through the voice of Mary singing to her baby boy...i don't think i will ever listen to the song now without thinking of her

words like 'if they knew, sweet little you....they'd end up loving you too...all those same people who scold you, what they'd give just for the right to hold you'

or like 'little one, when you play...don't you mind what they say'

or even words as simple as 'from your head down to your toes'...what must that have been like for her mother heart, as she rocked her Savior to sleep, to look down at those tiny fingers and toes and know that they would one day be pierced and bleed...for her?

what must that have been like? looking at Him and knowing He had all the power of God...that those infant eyes had seen the beginning of time...that He was her Savior King...Jesus Christ, Lord at His birth...and, yet, at the same time...he was her baby...it seems so overwhelming to me...but as i opened my daily advent meditation this morning, it was so timely...i was reminded of the heart God gave this young girl, and why He probably chose to use her in the first place...

'The Annunciation story (Luke 1:26-38) is the crescendo point to scripture’s theme of total grace and gift. Did you ever notice that Mary does not say she’s “not worthy”? She only asks for clarification: “How can this happen? I am a virgin” (Luke 1:34). She never asks if, whether, or why!
That is quite extraordinary and reveals her egolessness. Mary becomes the archetype of perfect receptivity. It takes the entire Bible to work up to one perfect vessel that knows how to say an unquestioning yes to an utterly free gift!' (Richard Rohr)

i love that term...'perfect receptivity'...what a lesson! just as Jonathan reminded us tonight...when we start to think God is far away, or that he 'came' past tense, or ask for Him to show up...we forget what the story of Christmas tells us...not just that He came, but that HE IS ALREADY HERE...HERE WITH US!
 what richness might we miss if we spend our eyes looking for the why or the how instead of seeing what is here now...what has always been and what is to come...the alpha and omega, the beginning and end...EMMANUEL, God WITH Us

so, no, i don't think i'll ever be able to sing this sweet lullaby to my baby boys again without thinking of a young girl...a labor of love...a mother heart...an open heart...a heart used by God to change the world forever

'rest your head close to my heart, never to part, baby of mine.'