Extaordinary

December is an extra special time to give birth.  As I held my newborn, I listened to the ordinary songs of Christmas, and looked at my ordinary newborn girl, and thought about the ordinary newborn boy born in a manger in Bethlehem.  And everything then became extraordinary.

The infant born to Mary was just a baby like mine.  He cried, nursed, spit up, and needed someone to even hold up his head.  He was ordinary in that he was just a human.

And that is what made him so extraordinary.  Because he was the Christ, our Saviour and the creator of everything.  All in tiny creature wrapped up in a young woman's arms.

And Mary, the ordinary woman of faith and obedience and strength.  The teenager who spoke with angels and carried the Lord in her womb.  Who travelled on a donkey with a large pregnant belly and laboured on a dirty stable floor.  The mother who nursed her child while looking into his eyes with wonder at both his innocence and divinity.  The mother who delivered God into our world.

So ordinary, yet so extraordinary.

"Jesus says Mother I couldn't stay another day longer

Flys right by me and leaves a kiss upon her face

While the angels are singin' his praises in a blaze of glory

Mary stays behind and starts cleaning up the place"

             -Patty Griffin, "Mary"