A Baby Changes Everything
photo credit: Isaac Quesada @isaacquesada
My oldest of three sons was born July 1990. If you had told me then, exactly how much my life would change because of a baby I wouldn’t have had a clue the depth of truth in that statement.
A baby changes everything.
I was 25 when he was born. I was a college graduate. I had a career started. I had been married two and a half years by that point. Life was right on track. I was ready for this. I grew up around babies. I was comfortable with them. Bring! IT! On! Then, it happens. Labor starts and there’s NO turning back. That baby is coming no matter what, and you are happy for that because even with a clean hospital room, good doctors, and pain meds, you want that baby OUT!
A baby changes everything.
His birth was a celebration, lots of family and friends around, lots of love, a nice car to bring him home safely, all buckled in his car seat. A beautiful warm home to bring him to where we could care for him and protect him. I felt love like I had never known before. (However, as anyone who has brought a newborn home knows, those first few months are less than peaceful and picturesque.) In those moments you realize your life will never be the same again.
A baby changes everything.
I learned the true, genuine meaning of unconditional love through my sons. I don’t recall ever having known a love so deep and pure as that between my sons and me. I became a much better version of myself because of them. They changed my world in ways I can’t describe, and while I think my sons are special, they haven’t changed the world. They weren’t born to bear the burdens of every single soul on this planet, and our sin and shame. On this Christmas Eve, as practically all Christmas Eves since becoming a Mom, I am so in awe of Jesus’ mother Mary, and how The Light she brought into this world changed EVERYTHING.
Her baby truly changed EVERYTHING.
She was so young, as all girls were in those days, to be a Mother. She was betrothed to be married, as was custom in those days, but she and Joseph knew something the rest of the world didn’t, and what they knew put their lives and the life of their unborn son in great danger. They had to leave town, she had to travel by donkey, being pregnant and close to labor, and they traveled miles upon miles, and they could find no place for her/them to sleep. This “woman,” Mary, still a child herself, this young girl who wasn’t even old enough to have lived her “own” life was chosen to give birth to The Savior of the World.
Her baby changes EVERYTHING!
When I think of all the things I thought about while pregnant and delivering and raising my son(s), I never carried the pain of knowing the burden my son would carry, or the price he would one day pay for the world, a world full of so many who would reject him, and mock him, and eventually betray him. I can’t imagine her heart watching him growing, playing, and treasuring him as a Mother would, yet all while knowing…
This baby changes Everything!
I am so grateful for the gift of Jesus. I am in complete awe when I really think about how God sent his plan of redemption through an infant. When I think about who I am today because of my children, and the hope the world has today because of Jesus, the fact truly is…
A baby changed everything.
