It Was Not a Silent Night

It Was Not a Silent Night; my encounter with the beauty of love at Christmas during the Behold the Lamb of God concert.

As my husband & I sat in the 6th row of The Behold the Lamb of God concert listening to Jill Phillips sing Labor of Love (my favorite song of the concert) my mind filled with the reality of birth. 

There is nothing silent or calm about giving birth & there was nothing clean or easy for Mary the night of Jesus’ birth.

My personal fears mixed with the tears of the beauty of the song & the reality that “the maker of the moon” had lowered Himself for my sake. 

As Jill sang my emotions continued to swirl, but then my eyes landed upon the (almost) 8 months pregnant cello player on stage. Before the concert began, Andrew Peterson had joked about her having Braxton Hicks contractions during this particular song to make it more realistic, but as my eyes turned to that dark corner of the stage I saw no pain.

In that dark corner, Claire Indie Nunn glowed. She sat mouthing (quite possible softly singing) along with Jill while she looked lovingly upon & caressed her large pregnant belly. I spent the rest of the song listening to Jill but watching Claire, as my emotions ran off the deep end.

I so deeply desire to have a Labor of Love, no matter how much I fear & fret, my love runs much deeper. And although jealously usually springs up when I see a woman pregnant like Claire, as I watched the love she had for her unborn child all I could do was hope & pray that I will be so blessed one day. 

Although I’m not a mother yet (& could not begin to understand the love a mother has for her children), I do already have unconditional love for the children we will birth & adopt. And as I tried to turn my attention back to the song & message I felt God reminding me that the love of a mother for her children is nothing compared to His love for us, for me.

It’s so easy to remember the sacrifice made on the cross & forget that of the birth story, especially when there are so many other things that occupy and cloud our mind this time of year. Not only did God allow His Son to be born to a woman in a sinful world in the worst of circumstance, but Jesus chose to lower Himself to the status of a human for the opportunity to save us, to save me.

That kind of love is incomprehensible.

So as we move closer to Christmas & into the new year I pray that God will teach me to love as He loves & that I will not shy away from sharing His love with others. I pray that I will not fall silent, but instead allow His love to shine through my actions & words for His glory.

 

If you are interested in keeping this time of year sacred,
here are 35 Ways to Emphasize Christ in Christmas.

 

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With love, G

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
& on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
Luke 2:14