Advent Reflection and Giving Birth In a Stable

Today’s guest post is by Theresa from Is There Zucchini in This?

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photo by davhor

Things I whined about while pregnant:

My legs hurt
My back hurt
My stomach hurt
Carrying things was awkward
TIRED TIRED TIRED
Couldn’t run or play with Mady like I wanted to
Clothes didn’t fit
Worry about everything
Dirty smelly conditions for the birth
No family or friends around
Having to walk/ride a donkey 80 miles the week I was due

Oh wait, those last three items weren’t a problem for me! Those were things Mary had to face! Can you imagine? I’ll get back to this in a bit…

As a part of the Advent countdown, I’m reading Christmas books to Mady every day. Her favorite so far was a board book about a sparkly princess decorating for Christmas. Most of the books we’ve read so far just tell the basic Christmas story. I also have a few on Santa Claus, one on St. Nick, and a few reindeer stories.

One of the books that we’ve read so far made me think of a few Christmas things that have never occured to me before. In Tomie DePaola’s, A Christmas Pageant (here is a board book adaptation), he casually mentions that Mary and Joseph had everything ready for Jesus to be born, then they found out that they had to travel to Bethlehem. There’s even a cute picture of their house, set up for a baby, with a nice cradle sitting in the room. Now, perhaps all of you made this connection long ago, but it never occurred to me that they would have been preparing for the baby at home, then their plans were messed up when they learned they had to walk to Bethlehem.

Again, can you imagine? My husband and I spent hours preparing Jake’s room and making sure the whole house was ready for a baby. I tried to have everything clean and planned out so the first weeks with Jake could be about him instead of filled with extra stress and silly household jobs (like vacuuming behind the furniture and organizing shoes). Surely Mary and Joseph had the house ready for their cute little baby, then they disappeared into Egypt, leaving the cradle and their family to hide out alone. My sleepless nights are nothing compared to the stress of leaving everything and starting over. Wow.

Even worse, when we had the baby, we spent a few days in a spotless hospital with a team of doctors, nurses, and staff prepared to take care of the birth, bring me food, clean up after me, and make sure Jake is fine. We even tried not to travel at all the weeks before the baby just in case he came early because we didn’t want to be stuck in a strange hospital. The thought of ending up in a stable is so outside the realm of possibility, I don’t even know what to say. I can’t imagine being told to walk to another town where we don’t have hotel reservations, and end up giving birth in a random barn–that would be a nightmare! Mad props, Mary. (After I typed that last sentence, I did consider deleting and and writing something that didn’t make me sound like a dork, but I’m leaving it since it does seem to sum things up nicely).

So no more whining from me about being tired or stressed out. Our new baby, Jake, is sleeping in the room we prepared for him, we have family and friends around for help and support, and I didn’t have to walk 80 miles when I was 9 months pregnant. I thank GOD for all of it and pray that Mary will help me be less of a wuss.

Visit http://istherezucchiniinthis.blogspot.com/ for more thoughts and ideas on the holidays!