My guest at Strengthened by Grace today is Debbie Moore.  Debbie is a pastor’s wife, mother, grandmother, woman of God, and my friend.  She speaks and writes with beautiful words.  Listen with me as she shares her heart with us.  

And Mary said, ”My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Luke 1:46

It is our family tradition to decorate for Christmas the day after we Give Thanks for all of God’s blessings.  

This year as we carefully unwrapped and arranged our Nativity scene, crafted by my parents, our granddaughter, Ella Grace, asked us “Why is Mary not holding Baby Jesus?”  She picked up the Christ-child and tried unsuccessfully to place Him in Mary’s arms.  

Then she lovingly hugged Him to her own heart.

Her tender three-year-old perspective gave me pause.  For as many years as we have displayed our Nativity, I had never pondered such a question.

Every character in our Nativity is postured to worship Baby Jesus, including the humble young mother of God’s own selection. It was almost as if Ella Grace could not bear that the Baby was not cradled in someone’s arms, someone who loved Him.

This new Christmas season, could we long to hold the infant Christ close to our hearts with the innocence of a child and join the angel worship chorus, “Glory to God in the Highest?”  Might we expectantly follow the Star in the moonlit night to the stable in Bethlehem and peek into the manger with shepherds’ hearts?  Shall we  lift our hands on bended knees before the greatest Gift the world will ever know?

Let us delight in Jesus’ newborn sweetness and cherish the miracle of His birth above any other in the course of time eternal. Only then may we forsake the lure of the secular that steals our joy from the season and cling unashamedly and passionately to the holiest of earthbound gifts, Immanuel, God with Us.