A Birth Story
Tomorrow marks the 44th anniversary of my chubby-self entering the world. My mom carried me two (long) weeks past my due date, and then I made my appearance to the world as a 9 pound baby girl who could barely fit into the stocking that I came home in from the hospital.
My mom has shared stories of her pregnancy and my birth with me. In fact, I used to love hearing about my birth story every year on my birthday. Without fail, my mom would tell the tale, usually right before it was time for cake, or in later years after I had moved away from home, it was a phone call at 10:27am, the time I was born. There is just something special about hearing the story of our own journey into this world. We have no memory of it, but those around us at the time become the archivists and historical witnesses. Each one of us has a story of our birth, our own narrative.
This Sunday, we will light the fourth and final Advent candle and listen to a portion of both Jesus’ and John the Baptist’s story, before the world knew them. We often think about the interaction between Mary and Elizabeth at the Visitation, and how they spent their time together. The support they had for one another was great and anointed by God. Mary was youthful with energy to spare, while Elizabeth was older with much wisdom to share with Mary. Meanwhile, their boys were in the womb at the same time. Jesus’ and John the Baptist’s story is being written here! Did Elizabeth later relate a story to her son John about this time? “When you leaped in my womb, it was this overwhelming feeling. I was amazed that as just a six-month-old baby in the womb, you were already sending a powerful message of who Jesus was.” And then, did Mary and Joseph sit down with Jesus when he was a child and say, “You and John (the Baptist) have a long history together. You two met each other before you were born. You have a special bond. I wonder what will come of the two of you.” I love thinking about how the story of Jesus and John the Baptist, along with the story of Mary and Elizabeth, are such human accounts of a supernatural part of history. Mary was indeed theotokos – the “God-bearer”, and she shared that time with pregnant Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah.
Going into this final Sunday of Advent, I hope the Visitation will be a holy reminder for us all that Jesus is the Lord, Mary is the mother of our Lord, and how good of a God we have to relate Jesus’ entry into this world to our very own path and entry into this world. May your own birth story be a celebration of the holy birth stories that have preceded us.
