The first post of December. Out the window, everything is covered–even buried, in white. The Christmas tree is lighting up the room, my cup of tea is still half full, and there is a baby dancing in my belly.

Tonight, I am considering the new, warm boots that kept my feet dry in knee high snow drifts…the way that others served me all day by wiping off, warming up and shoveling out my car…the compassion God gives us in moments when we desperately need to exhibit love and grace…the lyrics to the music sung tonight in a room filled with joy and good news.

Good news. Tomorrow, we will go to see our sweet little growing baby. By now, he or she is no longer the peanut-shaped, inch-long start of tiny person; instead, arms and legs that move and sense and respond, eyes and ears and fingers and toes that we will get a glimpse of, a miniature nose and a shape that will soon be the face we fall in love with over and over again.

I am already in love.

It’s coming on Christmas, and this year, I am smitten with the season. Delighted by the changes, welcoming the piles of snow. I know that amongst them, life will continue to take form within–almost as if Winter and Spring are one in the same for me this time around. There is so much hope under the gray and slush and fluff.

On Sunday, a friend said that she thinks there’s something particularly special about carrying a baby during at Christmastime. I think of Mary and Joseph, a stable and a baby boy…Away in a manger, no crib for a bed, the little Lord Jesus lay down His sweet head…the stars in the sky looked down where He lay…the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay…

There is so much anticipation in the coming of a baby, and the celebration of the coming of Christ Jesus in the form of a babe makes it tangible, monumental, full. I have always loved Christmas, but it’s true that this year, the season has a different kind of glow about it. The lights on the tree twinkle like stars, three stockings hang with intention, and we wait, with joyful hearts in expectation, for the good news of babies being born.

off to dance with the babe,

mm