Did you notice? I am not talking baseball to football, or Thanksgiving to Christmas or even Fall to Winter (as that won’t happen until Dec. 21).
I am talking about the seasons changing from Ordinary Time to Advent. It’s a new season for us to celebrate our faith and oh, oh there is just so much to celebrate.
Now is when we can begin to think of Jesus not as the Good Shepherd, the lamb of God or even the vine to our branches but as a baby; and aren’t babies just wonderful?
Babies are just so cute – each one of them. How many of us still smile at the memory of our babies laughing for the first time or have seen the videos of baby laughing at tearing paper or a bit confused when they see see their parent’s twin? Those can always lift my mood!
Babies remind us of God’s wonder. His ability to create a new and unrepeatable soul with each and every baby. And babies remind us of His great love for us that He sent us His only son, His only child to save us.
In Advent we can reflect on the wisdom of GK Chesterton who wrote in his The Everlasting Man: “…the hands that had made the sun and stars were too small to reach the huge heads of the cattle.”
This book, available on-line, is the one that transformed CS Lewis from an atheist to a believer; pretty powerful stuff.
A more recent writing has transfixed my heart. In a recent Magnificat, I received a card highlighting a work from Stephanie Morris. She had painted a lovely picture of Mary holding the Christ Child along with a poem that says in part:
“My beloved child, you are so beautiful!
Do you want to hold my Baby?”
Think about that – we are God’s own children, the children of Mary and we are being asked to hold Her child, Emmanuel, God with us, in our arms and in our hearts.
As a Mom whose youngest is approaching 10, I miss babies. I miss how they smelled, how they felt so soft and helpless in my arms. I miss how they laughed and how they absolutely trusted me to take care of them, even when I didn’t believe I could.
Christ is a child again during Advent. Am I taking the time to hold Him? Am I allowing myself to be trusted with Jesus?
As the seasons have changed, I am realizing that I need to as well. Jesus is relying on me to take care of Him, to hold Him safely in my heart.
Miss Morris considers this as she writes from Mary’s perspective:
“I call you to love Jesus with all that is in you!”
