A Season of Preparation

Her back was probably aching from the child filling her womb.  Were her ankles swelling from the travel?  The motion of the donkey stumbling along the path must have caused additional strain on a tired bladder.  Perhaps she was too exhausted to be hungry.  The journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, a rough 70 miles, would take days.

I think about how, as my own belly swells, my trips away from home are limited in the last weeks of pregnancy.  Precautions are taken to assure that I will be able to make it to my hospital in time for my baby's arrival.  I have started arranging my home, adjusting my routine, preparing my children for the change we will all experience in a couple of months.  I have been cutting myself slack in housekeeping and allowing a little extra sleep here and there.  Mary was traveling to Bethlehem.

She was traveling to Bethlehem in her last month of pregnancy at a time when our modern world would have cautioned her to "take it easy."  She was too far from home for the comforts of her mother to coax her through labor.  No midwife was arranged to be waiting for her in Bethlehem.  There was not even a certainty of accommodations when they arrived.  By today's standards, if I were to take off on my due date for a leisurely trip out of state, I would be considered irresponsible.  Mary was faithful.  She didn't have a choice but to take the mandated trip with her betrothed.  There was no advocacy program for pregnant mothers to opt-out of the census.  I wonder if the cloths she wrapped her baby in were packed in expectation of his arrival or if it was what they happened to have available.

What did she do to prepare?

I have been sorting piles of newborn clothes to be washed and folded.  We have been shopping for bunk beds for Colette and Mary's room so that we can make the crib available.  Prenatal appointments are written on the calendar and I have faithfully re-read all of my prenatal care handouts and baby books.  Soon I will be doubling recipes so I can serve half and freeze the remainder for the first hectic month of Baby's life when dinner seems impossible to manage.  Mary will be undergoing potty-training in the next month so that there will be only one set of diapers that will have to be washed every night (hopefully) once Baby arrives.

In this season of Advent, when our hearts are to be set on preparing for our King, I think about what Mary did to prepare for Him.  How did she prepare her parents for this news, a young girl of 15 or 16, pregnant with the Child of God?  What was Joseph doing?  How did he grapple what was happening to the woman that he loved and remain faithful to her?  Did he build a cradle, talk with the experienced new fathers in his neighborhood?  Did Mary's mother coach her on labor signs, prepare her for the difficulties of nursing?  

Every first time expectant mother gets warned at least once by some well-meaning informant, "Your life will never be the same!"  And every first time expectant mother wonders at how she can prepare for something so unknown.  In the days of technology, we place our trust in the doctor's judgements on the sex of the baby, the health of the baby, the ease of delivery through conveniences like epidurals and caesarean surgery if things go awry.  We trust in the multitudes of products we buy and diapers we pile up in advance.  We read books written by experts to set our minds at ease about the pains we will face in labor and how to manage our babies upon arrival.  In whom, in what did Mary place her trust?

"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered.  "May it be to me as you have said."  Luke 1:3

Was it easy for her to trust God through the whole pregnancy?  Even with my modern reassurances that everything is moving along smoothly, I still find myself worrying about the baby's health and my own.  I still focus on fear when the day becomes overwhelming with two children clamoring for my attention even though I am the product of my mother providing for seven of her own.  Maybe because Mary had nothing but God to trust in, it was easy for her to cling to Him.  There are so many distractions in the details we have available today; it is easy to feel less of a need to depend on our Creator, the Creator of this life inside me.

The details of this Christmas season- the decorating, shopping, social events- pull us away from the main task, preparing our hearts for the Savior.  It would serve us well to consider what Mary did in preparation for her son, our Savior.  We know very little of the physical preparations that she did.  We know that when the day arrived, she was far from home without a bed for herself or her baby.  I think Mary held on to that moment when the angel appeared to her, reliving his words, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God."  How often she must have had to revisit those words to assure herself that everything was going to be alright!  I certainly have not had any angelic visitations proclaiming God's will for my child, but have I ignored the opportunity to hear the voice of God whisper His peace into my heart when I do not take time for quiet prayer?  Have you?  Mary prepared her heart by treasuring up all that was happening to her and pondering them in her heart.  She stored these miraculous moments in her memory so that she could hold onto them as certainties when faced with her own uncertainties of raising the Christ Child.  God wants to give you treasures to store up in your heart.  He wants to speak love to your heart through this baby in the manger.  Are you too busy with details to hear the message?