The Birth

The story of the virgin birth has always intrigued me at Christmas. How God reached down and touched humanity so intimately that the laws of man and nature were so in awe of the Almighty that they surrendered to His doing. How God orchestrated it all, how God choose a humble Jewish girl, how God choose to step into the lives of the lowliest. It was a death of the natural that made way for the ultimate source of life.

Sometimes in life we face a death of the natural to make way for New Life. A death to ourselves. A surrender of control for God's calling and ultimate plan that transcends and transforms our own. Every woman who has ever given birth before understands this death - a death of will, of body, of control for the sake of another. When the pains sweep over you, and every contraction tears your body apart. Birthed in fire, blood and water new life comes, purified, transformed, redeemed.

In this season I am in a death of sorts. A death to myself, of how I would have planned things to go. A death of how I wanted things to be. A death of my heartstrings as a different sort of contractions sweep over me and my life. The pains come more intensely now, more frequently, and longer. A calling of the Eternal to step into the life He has for me. If I had been Mary, could I have said yes? Could I have surrendered everything to bring the Savior into this world?

When I'm on my own, devoid of pain or struggles, I feel I can say yes to anything God asks of me. But its in the midst of the death that it gets hard. When my body, mind and spirit are uncomfortable with where I'm at. When my life has overwhelmed me and I feel like giving up. When the future only shows more difficulty. When God asks me to surrender to thy will be done. As Mary said:

“I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” Luke 1:38

It didn't mean that what came for the rest of Joseph and Mary's lives was easy. But from the death, from the surrender, came a new and greater life than either of them could have known when they surrendered. Some of the greatest gifts come out of the seasons of intense pain and struggle. In God's timing He makes all things new, all things beautiful.

So we cut down the Christmas trees and decorate them with light. So we light the candles and hang the garland. And we sing songs of hope and joy in the darkness. Because to have the birth, to enter into the glorious life God has for us there has to be death.