Saturday Advent 3

Do you recall the last two stanzas of the familiar Christmas Carol “O Little Town of Bethlehem”?

How silently, how silently
The wondrous gift is given!
So God imparts to human hearts
The blessings of His heaven.
No ear may his His coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive him still,
The dear Christ enters in.

O holy Child of Bethlehem
Descend to us, we pray
Cast out our sin and enter in
Be born to us today
We hear the Christmas angels
The great glad tidings tell
O come to us, abide with us
Our Lord Emmanuel

Women who have delivered children will recall the hours of labor before childbirth. Men who have attended births can recall the experience of “standing by” birth as it progresses. The minutes seem s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-d…. Laboring woman and watchful attendant are both aware that birth is a process that unfolds with a timing that we cannot completely control, nomatter how sophisticated medical technology becomes. Then, most ideally, there is that moment when newborn is placed in the arms of the mother…and the bonding and the nourishment begins.

Sometimes when the Lord is “birthing” something, the process is very much like a natural delivery process. We endure the initial pangs of the emergence of events. We sometimes wrestle with transition…but eventually we experience the joy of the presentation of the NEW being or the NEW phase of life.

But there are other times when there is an outburst of Christ’s presence that literally breaks through the rigid walls of our sin. Our hearts may be closed to forgiveness…our minds may be narrow…resistant to new ways of thinking. Today’s reading from Isaiah reminds us of the mysterious, miraculous arrival of new possibilities that may be “given” as God opens the “womb” of our heart, mind and soul. No writhing or laboring here…just the arrival of New life!

Be Born in Us, Emmanuel! Let us trust the miraculous approach of the one who births life within us. This is a birth of joy and hope and love and peace that occurs when God opens our heart and mind to new life. In faith, we then stay close to the Lord who accomplished this amazing deed, so that we can be both embraced and nourished. We “bond” with the divine, so that we can grow and go forth as New Creations.