Let's Get Cozy & Cry Over the Nativity Story

What would you do if you were there?

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Let's Get Cozy & Cry Over the Nativity Story

Good evening, Reader. Or perhaps good morning, good afternoon from wherever in the world you’re reading from. Do you have some tea? Maybe a hot cocoa or eggnog beside you? Coffee of course if that’s your morning go-to. I would highly suggest some peppermint mocha creamer but that’s just me. I am wrapped in a red blanket with a bowl of soup beside me and Christmas jazz in the background. My cat, P-spice, is sitting at my feet watching me type away on my laptop. I hope from miles or oceans away you are equally as comfortable. Now, I was wondering, can we talk about the Nativity together?

This strange phenomenon has been happening to me this Christmas season. And I’m only just starting to understand why. Every time I heard a Christmas carol about Jesus’ birth or even think about the Nativity story, tears would well up in my eyes.

At first, I thought, What is going on? I’ve heard these Christmas carols all my life.

And this past weekend at a church Christmas party, it became clear. During the worship set, one of the women, Jane, and the pastor’s son on acoustic guitar, started to play a song I had never heard before.

Hold on now, gotta take a deep breath
I don't know what to say when I look in Your eyes
You made the world before I was born
But here I am holding You in my arms tonight

Noel, Noel
Jesus our Emmanuel

You're here and I'm holding You so near
I'm staring into the face of my Saviour, King and Creator
You could have left us on our own
But You're here

I don't know how long I'm gonna have You for
But I'll be watching when You change the world
Look at Your hands, they're still so small
Someday You're gonna stretch them out and save us all

Noel, Noel
God with us, Emmanuel

You're here, I'm holding You so near
I'm staring into the face of my Saviour, King and Creator
You could've left us on our own
But You're here, You're here

Someday I'm gonna look back on this
The night that God became a baby boy
Someday You're gonna go home again
But You'll leave Your spirit and flood the world with joy

You'll be here, I'm holding You so near,
I'm staring into the face of my Saviour, King and Creator
You could have left me on my own
But You're here, You're here

Hallelujah, You're here
Hallelujah, You're here

The fluorescent lights above our heads lit up the community center in that bright white unflattering hue. There was no Christmas tree. Even the microphone was cutting in and out as Jane sang the song. This wasn’t some trendy aesthetically pleasing nondenominational church experience. No one had to create an atmosphere to convince me that the Holy Spirit was present. He just was. This was church.

Fat, wet tears raced down my cheeks, and I began praying to the Lord. I looked over at my husband and he smiled his big, gorgeous smile, laughed a little, and pat me on the back. Glancing over at the ladies sitting at our table, their faces were ones of slight concern.

But I was just in awe. I was in wonder. God, the Creator of the universe, humbled himself into a baby. He came down. The Word was made flesh.¹ The prophecy of a Messiah fulfilled.² For us. For us. To be with us, teach us, save us. For eternity. Because He loves us.³ Because we are His beloved.

Me? A truly wretched thing. Made into a new creation,⁴ into His bride, into His beloved child,⁵ adopted into His family, completely undeserving of Him and yet entirely longed for and pursued.

And not just me, not just people born into the Christian Church, not just us in the western world, but you. You, too. He came for us all.⁶ He was lovesick for humanity. His heart is that big. There is nothing you have ever done, nor series of things you have done, that make you ineligible of receiving His free gift of unconditional love, of radical forgiveness, of adoption into His family. He wants you, Reader. My goodness does He want you.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah 9:6

He was here. Here. Walking and talking and eating, crying and laughing, grieving, building. And it started on the night that Mary gave birth in a barn, placing Jesus in a manger, where cattle or horses eat from. Can you imagine a humbler entrance into the very world He created?

I imagine myself approaching the manger with the shepherds and wise men. Joy and wonder and curiosity in my heart. The air would smell of hay and animal dung. Would young Mary be lying on the ground beside Him, exhausted, pain lingering through her body fresh from childbirth? I’d greet her gently, wipe the tousled hair from her forehead, congratulate her, let her know I would tend to her in just a moment. And pulling my veil a little tighter over my hair, longing to show as much reverence as possible, I’d tremble.

I’d get down on my knees instantly and fall prostrate, almost uncontrollably, seeing there the little hands and feet that would change everything. The hands that would be pierced for our sins, that would be laid on many to heal, that await my embrace after this earthly life. The feet that would walk on water, be washed with tears, anointed with costly oil, and dried with a woman’s hair, wearing sandals I am unworthy to untie.⁷

Oh, to be in that barn on that night. I would be on my face in praise. Would I bring oil? A drum? Or my own weeping with a simple, “Thank you. Hosanna. Hallelujah. Thank you.”

“But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord.’” Luke 2:10-11

Katie Donohue Tona

If you liked this post, you might also like (psst. It’s coincidentally also about the coming birth of Jesus from Mary’s perspective):

Let's Get Cozy and Cry Over Scripture

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1. “The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

2. “Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.” Micah 5:2

3. “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

4. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” 2 Corinthians 5:17

5. “See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!” 1 John 3:1

6. “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.” Isaiah 45:22

“God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” 1 Timothy 1: 3-4

“Therefore, go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” Matthew 28:19

7. “He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” John 1:27