Today at the Christmas service, a song was sung by Andy Pancratz and Karen Pancratz called Labor of Love. It is originally done by Andrew Peterson and Jill Phillips from the Behold the Lamb of God CD. The lyrics to this song are incredible and really fit in to some things that have been running through my mind for a couple weeks now in regards to the miraculous birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It was not a silent night
There was blood on the ground
You could hear a woman cry
In the alleyways that night
On the streets of David’s townAnd the stable was not clean
And the cobblestones were cold
And little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
Had no mother’s hand to holdIt was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of loveNoble Joseph at her side
Calloused hands and weary eyes
There were no midwives to be found
In the streets of David’s town
In the middle of the nightSo he held her and he prayed
Shafts of moonlight on his face
But the baby in her womb
He was the maker of the moon
He was the Author of the faith
That could make the mountains moveIt was a labor of pain
It was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark
With every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love
For little Mary full of grace
With the tears upon her face
It was a labor of love
Having given birth to my first child this year and as I have watched her grow up into the sweet little 8 month old baby that she is now, the account of Jesus’ birth has really become fresh and new to me this year. I have been thinking about it a lot for the past few weeks. Trying to imagine what it must have been like for Mary to give birth to the Savior of the world. To give birth to God’s own Son. How amazing! I just cannot comprehend what thoughts must have been running through her mind.
Even though he was fully God, he was also still a “helpless” infant too, right? I don’t want to sound sacrilegious, but I mean, she had to take care of God. Completely. She would have had to bathe Him, feed Him, and change His diapers. What did she think about when she would do this? Did it ever weird her out? Did she ever get annoyed by His crying at 3:00 in the morning? Did she ever get frustrated with baby Jesus and hand Him over to Joseph the minute Joseph came in the door after finishing his workday?
This song this morning brought more views about the birth of Jesus to my mind that I hadn’t thought of before. Mary had to give birth alone. Sure, Joseph was there, but there wasn’t a doctor or even her mother present to attend to her. No sanitary hospital beds. No epidural. I know her faith in God was strong, so strong that she was chosen by God for this task. But I think I still would have strongly wanted my mother there.
I love the Christmas story. It is one that I want to keep fresh in my heart. That God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. That God loved us so much that He would be born as a baby in the humblest of conditions and go through this life so that He could then die in our place. What a loving God we serve and what a labor of love.
That’s beautiful. Another new mom friend and I were talkig about this recently and she commented on how humbling it is that God chose to come as a baby and not a full-grown adult. God had to teethe and have diapers and all that ugliness of childhood. Pretty awesome when you think about it.