Beautiful Nativity

Follow this link to see the painting that inspired the thoughts below much larger.  I love it.

A Christmas Birth

On September 15th, 2010 I gave birth to my sixth baby, my fifth boy. I have kept this birth in a quiet place. It has had a different impression. I feel a reverence for this baby’s arrival. I am a simple woman who was able to deliver a miracle. I was supported by my husband who was concerned for me and the baby, but believed in my body’s ability to birth. I was attended by two gifted women who are blessed with the ability to anchor a mother through labor and birth. I also feel there were angels attending and watching over. Angels who were fully invested in the events. Angels who love my family and I. I gave birth in simple circumstances, and love that. After the birth, I felt an overwhelming responsibility for the new person in my arms. Who is this tiny boy?

It is Christmas time. Pondering the birth of the Savior of the world, the world he created, brought similar feelings as my son’s birth. I am sure Mary had to succumb to the power of her body. She brought forth a true miracle. Joseph was her protector. What were his thoughts as he supported her and the imminent arrival of the babe? I imagine there were women there. Women allowing her to birth the way she needed, providing only what women can do for other women, and bringing a feeling of calmness and safety. I know that angels watched, protected, and rejoiced. The heavens were opened. The Christ child was delivered to the earth in the simplest circumstances. I wonder if Mary was overcome with her calling as a mother. I wonder if she felt a reverence for all that she had experienced. I assume she did as the scriptures tell us that, “Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.”

Birth is a powerful miracle. The birth of our Savior was so much more! As I reflect on these two births with their differences and similarities, I am overwhelmed. I am overwhelmed by the feelings I experienced at my own baby’s birth and still now in retrospect. How much more, then, it must have been for our Savior’s birth.