Christmas Meditations from a First-Time Mother...

"How can this be...?" (Luke 1:34)

Some things are hard to understand unless you experience it-- like the first time we heard our baby's heartbeat, the first time we felt the baby kick, and the first time we saw our baby's face via ultrasound. In each of those moments, the theoretical existence of our child became more of a reality.

How can it be that someone else's life is bound up in mine?
How can it be that this child is the very first representation of me and Luke?
How can it be that this child has both a sin nature but is also created in the image of God?

Now that we're about a month and a half away from the baby's arrival, I can only imagine what it will be like to find out if God has given us a boy or girl and hold that child in my arms for the very first time.

Reading the Christmas story from a mother's perspective makes me wonder what Mary felt those nine months when she carried the Son of God in her womb-- she didn't have the luxury of hearing His heartbeat or seeing Him via ultrasound. But she was one of the few mothers in history who not only found out the sex of her baby ahead of time, but also caught a glimpse of the destiny of her Child before He was born. I wonder what she thought when she felt the Baby kick for the first time and realized that the infinite Almighty God had not only chosen to limit Himself in the form of a Child, but to reside within the body of a sinner that He had come to save.

I don't have any conclusions, just more questions: "How can this be...?"