MOTHER'S PERSPECTIVE

Justin and I recently volunteered for Christmas Unwrapped at our church. They call it an interactive Christmas experience. The best way I can describe it is to say it is like a Christmas carnival. We volunteered specifically for the Live Nativity. I felt like Baylor, although certainly much bigger than a new born, would make a good baby Jesus. I never imagined the opportunity to serve would be such a touching and spiritually moving experience.

The setting was just as you would picture the nativity complete with animals,sheperds, and wise men. Justin and I portrayed Mary and Joseph. At first it was interesting to take it all in and look around at the animals and all the people. Everyone, obviously, was excited and interested in the "real baby Jesus". After a while it got dark, colder, and it was harder to see all the people because we had bright lights shining on us.

I began to think about the scene and the very real people we were portraying. I couldn't help but look at my sweet boy while we sat in that stable and imagine how Mary must have felt every time she looked at her son, Jesus. Mary knew God's plan for her son. It began to weigh heavy on my heart what that job must have been like for her. She was unmarried when she learned she would give birth to the savior of man. She carried him, raised him, and loved him as only a mother can knowing that it would be her son, the son of God, that would be sacrificed for our sin. It was a humbling experience, to say the very least, to sit in a stable and imagine myself as Mary. I know if asked to do what she did today I would really struggle with the call. Yes, I would respond in obedience, but the challenge would be difficult for certain. Mary sets a great example for women of what it means to follow the call of our Father.

God, through Mary, sent his son into the world. That son was sacrificed on a cross to pay the debt for the sins of mankind for all eternity. He was born and died so that we can eternal life in Heaven.

What an amazing woman! What an amazing baby! What an amazing Savior?! What an amazing God! Merry Christmas!