Last Christmas before the morning light had dawned, we found out we were pregnant. We carried this hope of new life with us as we waited and watched praying this new life would join our family safely. So this Christmas as we held her, the miracle of the story of the Christ Child was a little more real.
As I walked through the Advent season with the sounds of an infant needing to be fed and needing to be comforted, there was a new realization of the care it took for the Christ Child to become who he would become. He needed to be fed. He needed to be changed. He needed to be held close when the world around him was too loud and too new.
Maybe these needs are not all the different from how to care for the gospel. The gospel needs to be fed with hope and faith. The gospel needs to be held close to our hearts and minds so that we remember why we are doing what we are doing in this world. And the gospel tends to change as we grow into new versions of who we are.
The miracle of new life changes the way we look at the world. The miracle of new life changes the way we see ourselves.
So this is Christmas. Holding the hope that new life will change the world.