Sometimes life doesn’t make sense. With great effort we churn those milky questions, but they refuse to harden into answers. We’re left only with the sourness of our confusion.
The nativity gives us permission to not see the whole picture. We’re allowed to sit in the dark and wonder. Consider the limited perspective of Mary and Joseph. All they knew was that they had been given this baby, the Messiah. They had no special parenting book, “12 Steps for Raising the Perfect Savior.” When Mary held her baby and “pondered all these things in her heart”, she saw only the moment. His tiny hand grasping, his lips suckling. She didn’t see the miracles he’d perform or the cross he’d die on. She didn’t see the Pharisees questioning or the crowds pressuring.
Instead of seeing, Mary and Joseph pondered – questions about the future, prophecies of the past, all of it a swirling wonder within their hearts. They had only the certainty of hope and an anticipation of who this child would become.
This Christmas, may you find…
…in the pondering, anticipation;
…in the churning of questions, an unfurling promise;
…in the confusion, fullness of wonder.