Expectations and Adequacy
This morning we went to sing carols at a convalescent home, and my darling daughter decided she would like to dress as Mary. As I fitted the shirt over her head, I asked her whether she would like baby Jesus to be in or out. "Out," she said, "Not in my tummy". Smart choice, I thought. So we found a doll and divested it of its pink and purple frillies, and swaddled it up to be a Baby Jesus. And she stood there, cradling it... no, him... stroking his head from time to time and starting lovingly down at him.
It got me thinking. Last Christmas I was 38 weeks pregnant with Callum, and thought often of Mary as she must have been, "large with child, for her time had come"... traveling day and night on the back of a donkey. Young. Afraid. And yet trusting.
Seeing Teg this morning made me think of Mary in a different way: not pregnant Mary, but Mary with a little baby boy. The angel had told her from the start that the child she was to bear would be the Messiah - the promised King of Israel. She knew he would be marvelous and majestic. She also knew she was but 16, poor, not at all equipped or ready to raise a child at all - much less to raise, train, groom and educate the future King of God's Kingdom. What a responsibility! And how inadequate she must have felt.... no, KNOWN.... she was. But she also knew this was what God had called her to, and so in her youth and naivete, and in faith - she gave mothering her best shot.
Last night Callum woke up in the middle of the night crying, and seemed to be struggling to go back to sleep. When I went in and picked him up, I discovered he was soaked. Somehow, we had forgotten to put a diaper on him. Oops. We held our cold, wet, bewildered and crying boy and even as we laughed about the situation, we felt so, so terrible about it. This morning he was tired and cranky and still smells faintly of pee. And we continued to feel like sad, bad, inadequate parents - not even able to to put a diaper on our kid!
But when I saw little Mary this morning and it got me thinking again about how, even though she KNEW she was a young mom, ill-equipped yet entrusted to raised a great King - she still did it. This Christmas I'm meditating on parenting and adequacy, for who would ever have been ADEQUATE to be a parent to the Son of God? By faith, Mary and Joseph were. And by faith, we're going to give it our best shot.
And double check the diaper status before bed-time tonight.
"Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God," (2 Corinthians 3:4,5).
It got me thinking. Last Christmas I was 38 weeks pregnant with Callum, and thought often of Mary as she must have been, "large with child, for her time had come"... traveling day and night on the back of a donkey. Young. Afraid. And yet trusting.
Seeing Teg this morning made me think of Mary in a different way: not pregnant Mary, but Mary with a little baby boy. The angel had told her from the start that the child she was to bear would be the Messiah - the promised King of Israel. She knew he would be marvelous and majestic. She also knew she was but 16, poor, not at all equipped or ready to raise a child at all - much less to raise, train, groom and educate the future King of God's Kingdom. What a responsibility! And how inadequate she must have felt.... no, KNOWN.... she was. But she also knew this was what God had called her to, and so in her youth and naivete, and in faith - she gave mothering her best shot.
Last night Callum woke up in the middle of the night crying, and seemed to be struggling to go back to sleep. When I went in and picked him up, I discovered he was soaked. Somehow, we had forgotten to put a diaper on him. Oops. We held our cold, wet, bewildered and crying boy and even as we laughed about the situation, we felt so, so terrible about it. This morning he was tired and cranky and still smells faintly of pee. And we continued to feel like sad, bad, inadequate parents - not even able to to put a diaper on our kid!
But when I saw little Mary this morning and it got me thinking again about how, even though she KNEW she was a young mom, ill-equipped yet entrusted to raised a great King - she still did it. This Christmas I'm meditating on parenting and adequacy, for who would ever have been ADEQUATE to be a parent to the Son of God? By faith, Mary and Joseph were. And by faith, we're going to give it our best shot.
And double check the diaper status before bed-time tonight.
"Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God," (2 Corinthians 3:4,5).
posted by Bronwyn at 12:58 pm
2 Comments:
We love your family:) This post was very timely and very encouraging. Thank you:)
Poor little guy - we've done that a few times - usually only after they were out of day nappies though!
Great post Bron xxx
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