Into each life...

To borrow from Bill Cosby...

"Mary, this is God."

"God?"

"Yes, Mary. Behold, you have been given a great gift."

"A gift, God? That's very kind of you."

"You are going to carry the Son of God and bring him into the world."

"Carry? Like a basket?"

"No, Mary... you are going to become pregnant."

(Pause)

"Right.... who is this, really?"

We can see the end of the story from hindsight only. Mary becomes Jesus's mother and everything turns out relatively alright for her. But, at the time, I'm sure she was just a tad freaked out, upset, and maybe a little bit distressed about the prospect of not only being a mother, but being a virgin mother, and a virgin mother of the Son of God. I'm guessing that this was not part of her plans. I'm guessing it was more than just a little inconvenient. I'm really guessing that the timing could have probably been better. And yet, she accepted it, lived with it, and moved on.

Have you ever noticed that when a particularly bad storm finishes with us, the world looks a lot clearer afterwards? To be sure, the wind and the rain scour the atmosphere and drench the trees. Pollen, dust, smog - all these things disappear and the air is clear afterwards. We can see things the way they're meant to be seen, if only for a little while before the air begins to get dirty again. But there is also a kind of seeing that only comes to us when things have been particularly nasty and our field of vision has narrowed so far that for a brief time the only thing that matters to us is the survival of those we love. The wind and the rain and all that the world can offer scours away the detritus of our lives until we are left with a clear vision and see things the way they're meant to be seen.

Some people see valleys as places where mountains go to die, others see valleys as the places where mountains begin to rise.

I've been sick the past couple of days. In fact, my whole family has been fighting the same illness. When I was much younger I coined the phrase that if neccesity was the mother of invention, sickness was surely its father. When we are sick we are usually left with one task to do - get better - which gives our mind time to empty of unimportant and unneccesary thoughts and feelings. We focus on the immediate. We focus on the imperative. We let the little details go. There is a sharpness that comes to us in being sick. There is a desire to survive the storm.

We accept it. We live with it. We move on.

I was searching for a single meaning in Jesus's birth as their is such a significant meaning in Jesus's death and resurrection. But I can't find a single meaning. As with all hopes, each person's meaning is a little different. Faith is the assurance of things hoped for. And Jesus's birth heralds the arrival of hope and the blessings of faith. You ask for an answer to faith and I can point you to Jesus's birth - there is the answer to faith.

It doesn't come easy. But it comes. That is all we need to know or to believe.