Little love, my bouncing baby boy is now my active little joy.
This afternoon as I was doing a bit of Bible study he kept doing flutter kicks against my tummy. It is amazing to tell him to kick again and then to actually see and feel him move. My bouncing baby likes to bounce and move and doesn't like to stay still.
I have been contemplating many of the stories we are so used to reading from the Bible. Mary telling the angel, that she was willing to be the mother of Jesus has such new depth. Can you imagine?
I mean first of all she was willing to be seen as an unwed mother at least by her fiance Joseph. When Joseph finds out he doesn't believe her and almost puts her away. What would that have meant?
She could have been stoned according to the law.
The angel corrects Joseph's misunderstanding, so she doesn't actually deal with this possibility.
What must have the neighbors believed?
Joseph and Mary get married, but no honeymoon until after the baby. No sex until after the baby. Was that hard on Joseph?
How does one do a honeymoon with a baby? So maybe it means no honeymoon at all. What is it like to go from engaged to mother without the usual trappings?
Then come the other questions. Joseph and Mary travel 60 miles or so from Nazareth to Bethlehem with Mary far enough along to give birth. Did they walk? Did she have a donkey? Was it the trip that induced her labor? Was she in labor before she got to the inn? How long did she labor? Then there is the trip with the young baby or child as they escape to Egypt. I am sure that was not the easiest of trips. Yet how comforting to know that the angels were protecting them.
I am 24 weeks tomorrow. When I walk my pelvis sometimes hurts. I cannot imagine walking 60 miles, or riding. Sometimes it hurts to stand on one foot or walk up the stairs.
This makes Mary and Joseph's trip thoroughly amazing.
Then there is Sarah who was 90. I cannot imagine giving birth at 90. It is difficult enough in your 30's.
Ultimately the contemplation just brings to light the amazing-ness of the character of the people revealed within the Bible's pages.
I am just an ordinary girl who is in love with the idea of this little bubbly boy that refuses to stay still within me. He loves music, and sermons so far, and likes to be active if I kneel or sit in funny positions. He has been redecorating my body, reorganizing my tastes, my clothing sizes, my priorities and my heart. Once he arrives I am sure the over haul will continue. In the meantime the contemplations will go on.
