Babies at Christmas

When Zoey was two, her favorite of my Christmas ornaments was a large snow globe with the nativity scene inside it. It stood on a musical stand where camels rested after their long trip. The music box played “We Three Kings” and the camels rotated slowly underneath the globe. I placed it in the middle of the table where Zoey’s little hands couldn’t reach it, so she sat in a chair that brought her eyes up level with the camels and watched and listened. As soon as the music ran down she would laugh and say “again.” And again. And again. I thought there would never be anyone as precious as two year old Zoey.

Of course, three year old Zoey was just as precious – and she still is.

There’s something really special about having a baby around at Christmas. We often think that Christmas is for the children – the lights and music and presents and cookies . . . Or that all those things bring out the child in each of us. But Christmas is about a child too young to appreciate those things.

If you’re blessed, you’ve had an infant in your arms on Christmas. For me, it was a two month old niece. I felt her tiny body snuggle up to me, smelled her baby smell and saw her little mouth pucker. For a brief moment, I could picture my Creator like this. Really.

Okay. I couldn’t.

But God uses real life situations as metaphors to make His message clear. Holding a baby at Christmas was one for me. It was overwhelming to hold a tiny, helpless baby and consider that the Sovereign God gave up His glories in Heaven and was born like this baby into a helpless world.

I can’t grasp the enormity of it, but I am humbled by it. And just a little bit afraid.

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Today Ruby goes to South Africa, where I had the privilege of holding a different niece, although it was closer to Easter than it was to Christmas. You can read her adventure in chapter eight here.

Meet the author, Debbie Roome.