Originally published on thefirstdayofspring.net, December 2015

Each year, I feel like something new strikes me at Christmas. I’ve read the story of baby Jesus hundreds of times, but it seems each year something pops out that I never saw before. This year, it is baby Jesus.

I was listening to a Christmas song about baby Jesus during a night of worship, and I pictured him crying out to his mother. A helpless little cry from the King of the Universe. I pictured her holding him. I pictured him cooing. Tears streamed down my face as I was overwhelmed by the reality of these images! He was indeed a little baby just like my baby Anna.

Anna is six months old and one of my favorite things about her are these little hands that are attached to the rolls of her arms with no wrist. It is the most precious thing to me!

I smile wondering if baby Jesus had little rolls like this. I wonder what his expression was the first time he sat up. What did it look like when the one who would walk on water took his first wobbly steps? Or sound like when the living Word babbled his first little noises?

The humanity and frailty of him is overwhelming. Such a powerful person and yet his entrance into the world was a baby. Completely helpless, completely powerless, completely dependent on us. Wow.

Like all of us, I have a million things to do this time of year. But when Anna is awake, I can’t get anything done. It’s impossible! And when she falls asleep on my chest, it is just heaven. I know how fast these babies grow. The rest of the world can wait.

There’s just something about babies. If they’re in a room, they become the central focus without even saying a word. They draw us in, they make us feel loved, they disarm us with their vulnerability. We want to hold them, we want to let the world stand still and hold that precious innocence in our arms. They make us forget our fears and our struggles, if only for a moment.

I was holding Anna today and feeling her little breaths go up on and down on my chest as I thought about that baby Jesus. Often when I picture him, I picture me sitting on his lap. I picture him putting the broken pieces of me back together. I picture me safe and resting in his strong and capable arms. I picture him wiping away every tear.

But when Jesus came into the world, he needed someone to hold him, to comfort him, to wipe away his little tears, and make sure he was safe. He needed someone to carry him, to care for him, to stop what they were doing and let him rest on their shoulder.

This year, will you join me in loving on the baby Jesus? In throwing away your to do list for a moment and holding him in your arms? In soaking in that sweetness while we can? Christmas is here and will be gone so soon! Oh come, let us adore him! The rest can wait. It’s time to enjoy our baby Jesus.

Tags: baby jesus, Christmas, city of huntsville, Huntsville, incarnation, let us adore him, Soul Food