The Morning After

I have been thinking about Mary and Joseph and what the morning after that amazing night of Jesus’ birth might have been like.

The night before must have been difficult for both Mary and Joseph. With no mother or midwife, Mary must have depended on her husband for help in birthing the child. Upon delivering a healthy boy child into the world, we know he was wrapped in swaddling cloth and put into the manger to sleep. What of Mary, did she collapse in hay or straw wrapped in Joseph’s big cloak? Did Joseph rest nearby? What about the affirmation God delivered to them both through the shepherds who came to worship the baby? They told the child’s parents of the angels and the message they had received. This visit was a wonderful AMEN to weary Mary and steadfast Joseph. Everything they had been told about this infant was repeated by the gawking shepherds staring at the Messiah, the newborn King.

What did the morning’s light find there in the stable near that Bethlehem inn? Was Mary, nursing her baby, still musing about those shepherds and their angelic message, and Joseph, stirring up the fire to warm them and their breakfast? Was this the day he was supposed to register with the rest of David’s descendants, according to the governor’s decree? Possibly the stark reality of caring for a wife and now a child, and getting a better place to stay all occupied Joseph’s mind that morning.

What of our morning after Christmas? Where does reality find us? Do we still marvel at the wonderful promise kept when Jesus was given to sinful man as our Savior? Is it part of our reality to have an on-going relationship with Jesus Christ? Do we truly grasp the truth that God took on flesh to experience bodily all we do (except sin) so we will be able to know Him and connect with the true extent of His love?

Hopefully the days and weeks after Christmas find us unwrapping God’s love through His word, through fellowship and the beauty of His creation, which declares His glory so well. His mercies are new every morning and His faithfulness is so very great. May your mornings after find you in the scriptures learning how much God has done to show you His love, forgiveness and grace through the baby in the manger. Doma