Moving Towards Birth

Dear Beloved Christ the King Community,

As I was reading an Advent morning devotional this week, I came upon a declaration by author Madeleine L'Engle that really struck me.  She declared, "Don't try to explain the Incarnation to me!  It is further from being explainable than the furthest star in the furthest galaxy.

It is love, God's limitless love enfleshing that love into the form of a human being, Jesus, the Christ, fully human and fully divine."  She then went on to describe the powerlessness that the Word experienced as an unborn child, in the womb of young Mary, musing over the process of growing, forming, and swimming in a great amniotic ocean.

As I hold this pre-birth imagery paused in my heart and mind, I can't help but meditate on the weeks before Jesus' birth.  As his body grew and took up any remaining space in Mary's womb, and then even more than she thought she had........as he was squeezed, struggling to twist and turn and kick freely as he had before........as he began to experience contractions compressing him and moving him toward a world that was at the same time not ready for him and yet so desperately needing him........As I meditate on these and other imagined moments before the Incarnation was birthed:

What am I discovering about God?

         What change am I noticing in myself?

                   What am I being called into and equipped for?

I encourage you to meditate on these and simliar questions this Advent season.....maybe while singing the Magnificat during Wednesday Evening Vespers.......maybe while walking around the parish hall gazing at Unique and Unexpected Creche Art.......maybe while listening to sacred music at the Bach Society's Christmas Oratorio.....maybe while baking cookies with Kids and Kin or delivering them to a homebound member.

As we pause, and listen, and meditate, and act, we open ourselves up to what God is changing inside of us for the sake of the world.   And as we find and take these opportunities as individuals and as a community, we participate in Mary's "yes," not fully understanding the Incarnation, but saying "yes" anyway.

Grace and peace, and even more, hope,

Pastor Jennifer