A Baby Changes Everything

It about an hour, I will officially be 35.  My mom told me yesterday on the phone that she would talk to me at my birth time as she has done for as long as I have been old enough to be awake at 1:11 am.  When I lived with her, she would wake me up and say, "It's your birthday!" or in recent years she calls or texts me.  As old as I am, I still love hearing my birth story.  How my parents had gone to a high school basketball game and my grandparents were away for the night.  My mom realized her water broke and they waited at my grandparent's house for them to get home.  Then she will tell me about the drive to the hospital - how my Papa had a new Lincoln with power windows - a very new technology in 1975 - and my dad got pulled over for speeding and couldn't figure out which button to push to get the drivers window down and my Grammie hollered at the police officer and they ended up with a police escort.  I was born a tiny little thing, 5 lbs 14 oz. and the nurses brought me to my mom for the first time in a stocking.

Then she tells me about Christmas and how my Grammie brought all of her presents to the hospital and she got a gorgeous white coat.  And she still isn't sure which was the better present, me or the white coat.  As silly as that tradition seems at my age, it connects me to my mom in a special way.  At 1:11 am on December 24, the years melt away and we reconnect at the heart.  

I hope in the last 35 years, I've been able to prove to be a little bit better than the coat.  Seeings how I'm still around and the coat is long gone I guess I can make the assumption I won out as the better gift.

As you head into Christmas Eve and your celebrations, I urge you to give thanks for the babies that have changed your lives and to take time to honor the baby that changed the world.


Luke 2:1-7
^2:1 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. ² (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) ³ And everyone went to his own town to register.
⁴ So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. ⁵ He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. ⁶ While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, ⁷ and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.


MERRY CHRISTMAS  May you rejoice on the blessings of the past year and may the new year be doubly blessed!