A recent conversation with a ministry colleague, who also happens to be a young mother, made me think of this poem, written shortly after I delivered our first child many years ago.
As my friend reminds me, one of the essential differences between the way we tend to celebrate Christmas these days and the biblical story of our Lord's birth that we proclaim is the inherent level of control embedded in our expectations.
This poem takes a more back-to-basics approach to "expecting." It's called, 13 more days.
Thirteen more days
'til Christmas --
We know beforehand
just when to celebrate
the nativity. We
count shopping days,
penciling activities
on December's blocks,
organizing his birth.
Yet in that first moment
the words
must have been whispered
as they have been
many thousands of times
before and since,
in surprise and surety –
"It's time, Joseph. It's time."
Lord, awaken us this Christmas
sharply, suddenly,
that we might gasp
with Mary's joy,
"He's come!"
Pastor Shirley
