Tidings of Comfort and Joy

There is something comforting about pregnancy that no matter what happens, you are not the only one to have gone through it. It's one of the few things where one can truly say what is now shall be, and what is now has always been.  Sure, all pregnancies and all babies are different, and sometimes it's easy to think that it impossible that anyone else has ever felt the same way, but at the end of the day, someone else has felt those kicks, someone else has worried, someone else has struggled over the perfect name, someone else has... the list could go on forever. 

And so, with Christmas coming, I have found myself thinking a lot about Mary, and her experience, wondering if she, too, had some of the same thoughts as me.  While I'm more than a little grateful that I will not be climbing on a donkey and heading to another city to give birth in a barn, I wonder: Did she wait for her baby with the same apprehension, excitement, and anxiety as I feel while waiting for mine? Did she laugh out loud the first time she felt those first kicks? Did she worry when she didn't feel well?  Did she cry when her house wasn't clean and she simply did not have the energy to do it?

Did she get mad at Joseph when he forgot to do the laundry? (Okay, probably not that one.)

Don't get me wrong here: I'm not under the impression that I am the same as Mary. She obviously was braver and more patient than I; however, it's easy to feel comforted by the fact that no matter what happens, I am in good company.

I'm leaving you with this, my favorite Christmas song. Enjoy :)