“Mommy Ate The Baby”
For weeks a 6-year old boy kept telling his 1st-grade teacher about the baby brother or sister they were expecting at his house. One day his mother allowed the boy to feel the the movements of the unborn child. The little guy was obviously impressed, but made no comment.
Furthermore, he stopped telling his teacher about the impending event. His teacher finally sat the boy on her lap and asked, “Tommy whatever has become of that baby brother or sister you were telling me about.” Tommy burst into tears and confessed: “I think mommy ate it!”
Sometimes when things are difficult or go awry in our lives we need to remember that to God we are like children – not too unlike Tommy. We can’t see the big picture or we often are unable to understand why things happen as they do.
New Creation Is Risky Business
Sometimes God allows difficulty into our lives. Sometimes when He knocks on the door of our hearts and comes in, He disturbs our world. He turns it upside down. Look at what happened when God showed up at the tomb of His Son Jesus on the third day. Things have never been the same since that historic and momentous intervention in time and space.
When the Lord comes knocking on the door of our lives, wanting to do a new work, it can be disturbing…….it can be frightening. We see this type of divine intervention in the life of the Virgin Mary.
Just think of her situation……..She’s pledged to be married to Joseph……The wedding plans are probably in full swing…..The date is set, the place is set, where they plan to live is set…………And then she gets a knock on her door, so to speak.
God sends Gabriel with the wonderful news: “You’re going to have a baby”. The problem for Mary is captured by her initial response to Gabriel: “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34)
Oh! Oh! The apple cart is starting to tilt a bit…… “What is this going to mean? I live in a small town. And like every small town that ever existed, everyone knows everyone’s business.” Imagine the gossip she had to endure. There was a real stigma to out-of-wedlock pregnancies. It was not like it is today in Canadian culture.
Just think of the inconvenience to her plans…….And then the ride to Bethlehem on a donkey near full-term…..And then she and Joseph had to flee to Egypt to escape the murderous clutches of King Herod. There was no special wedding that’s for sure.
When God enters our life, He can disturb it…..God’s plans for Mary preempted whatever control she had grown accustomed to.
She could of panicked. She could of thought the worst and painted a doomsday scenario. But she didn’t. She willingly opened the door to God’s plans and in the process stepped into a season of wonder. It took a lot of faith for her to respond the way she did: “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38). God ended up doing a great work through her.
God comes knocking at our door at different times and in different ways. We have a choice to say “Yes” or “No” to God, just like Mary. The call to new creation is risky and is filled with inconvenience and sacrifice. It urges us to be transformed in God’s grace. It has new of journeys to be taken, changes to be made, tasks to be carried out, growing to be done.
May God grant us the faith to open the door of our hearts so that we can enter a season of wonder. This is the Good News of Jesus Christ!
QOTD: Are we willing to have God come into the center of our lives and turn it upside down?