25 Days of Advent: A Cradle in Bethlehem

A Cradle in Bethlehem

Sing sweet and low your lullaby
'til angels say, "Amen."
A mother tonight is rocking
A cradle in Bethlehem.

While wise men follow through the dark
A star that beckons them
A mother tonight is rocking
A cradle in Bethlehem.

"A little child shall lead them,"
the prophet said of old.
In storm and tempest heed him
Until the bell is tolled.

Sing sweet and low your lullaby
'til angels say, "Amen."
A mother tonight is rocking
A cradle in Bethlehem.


Do you guys know of the MTV show "16 and Pregnant?" I think that's what it is called. I've only seen it once, and it is seriously depressing. Girls who are just out of childhood, mostly with deadbeat (at their worst) or dumb (at their best) boyfriends, often themselves having been the product of teen pregnancy.

I think about how it feels to be pregnant, physically and emotionally. I think about how impossible this would feel to me without Ben, without the blessing of our limited but secure finances, without the support and love of my family and friends. Without proper medical attention! I think about how difficult and sad and confusing and painful it must be for teen moms.

Then I think about Mary. Most scholars agree she was just a teenager herself. And though times were different and women were considered grown and became wives and mothers much earlier, she was still young and inexperienced and poor and alone. God knew this, and yet he chose her for one of the most important tasks ever. And by God's hand, she came through. Did she ever come through.

She bore her baby in the dust of a barn, without even the traditional midwives to help her. It was as bloody and messy and painful as any birth. And she wrapped him up and nursed him and held the salvation of the world - indeed, her own salvation - in her arms. Maybe she sang to him. She probably marveled at his tiny fingers and tiny toes and counted them all twice. Someday she would stand beneath the cross and watch her son murdered. The only one present at his birth and his death. But that first Christmas night, she was just a mama, rocking her baby in Bethlehem.