Pregnant With..... -- Day 12 of Advent

Two days ago I wrote of Mary's difficulties. Today, I write of her ease. Her ease in keeping her mind on Jesus. She was pregnant with Jesus. She physically carried him inside of her for nine months. To be pregnant is to be filled. Pregnant with desire is full of desire; pregnant with hope, full of hope. Pregnant pauses are full of meaning; they're significant. An historically pregnant time is of great importance or meaning. And, a pregnant decision produces results; it's fruitful. Being pregnant, how could Mary not keep her mind on Jesus?

In 1930, Frank Laubach wrote of his plan to keep his mind on Jesus. On June 3, he starts his letter in the following way: "This experiment which I am trying is the most strenuous discipline which any man ever attempted. I am not succeeding in keeping God in my mind very many hours of the day, and from the point of view of experiment number one, I should have to record a pretty high percentage of failure. But the other experiment -- what happens when I do succeed-- is so successful that it makes up for the failure of number one. God does work a change."

At the beginning of one's pregnancy, one hardly notices a change...until the morning sickness hits. Some few lucky ones never have the morning (or evening) trips to the bathroom to vomit out every bit of food they just managed to eat. Others experience such trips every waking moment of the day. It is not hard to keep one's mind on what is growing inside, but it may not be that heavenly moment of which others have spoken. Usually within that next month, the baby's movements can be felt -- just a little flutter here, then there. So amazing to think of this little one growing inside.

I could hardly wait with each of my children to feel those first movements, and to constantly be aware of their presence.

Then, as the last three months of pregnancy are entered, the baby grows so big that his presence can not be ignored by Mary. Nine months of waiting and being ever mindful of Jesus growing inside. Nine months filled with choices ("Be it unto me"; What will Joseph do?), a journey to Bethlehem, and then, birth in a rough-hewn shelter for animals. Mary does not have an easy life, but she has this constant awareness of Immanuel, God with her.

Laubach writes: "'Can it [keeping one's mind on Jesus] be done all the time?' Hardly. 'Does the effort [keeping aware] help?' Tremendously. Nothing I have ever found proves such a tonic to mind and body....The most important discovery of my whole life is that one can take a little rough cabin and transform it into a palace just by flooding it with thoughts of God." 

A place for animals in a little place like Bethlehem becomes a palace when Jesus is in it.
"But you Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be Ruler in Israel, Whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting"  (Micah 5:2 which was repeated to Herod when Herod sought Jesus so he could kill this new "ruler" -- Matthew 2:3-6).

My place, my condition, my circumstances become pregnant with significance and meaning when I wait and look for the appearance of Jesus in my life every moment of the day.

* The art in today's blog comes from the hands of Jason Jenicke, Sandro Botticelli, and Sassoferrato.