You're Here

Today marks the beginning of true life. Today is the day that Jesus Christ was born. He was born to bring us into His presence so that we could have a relationship with Him.

Throughout this season, I have been thinking a lot about Mary, Jesus' mother. She was just a teenage girl--probably around my age or even a little bit younger. She became pregnant by God. This is completely unexplainable yet it is absolutely radical! I'm sure she envisioned her first kid coming after marrying her prince charming and his birth in a more sanitary and graceful environment. The journey to Bethlehem was long and dirty and no doubt left her in want of a hot shower. But instead of a day at the spa, she was ushered into a filthy stable filled with cows. Sounds perfect, right?! No. About this time in the story if I had been Mary I would have been pretty frustrated. I mean, she had to go through a lot just to even have Jesus as a virgin betrothed to a man to be married. You'd think that God could have made it a little easier on her, right? But Mary didn't worry about appearances, details, perfection, or plans. She chose to treasure the wonder of everything that her God had done in her heart. That's how I want to spend the rest of my life. I don't want to spend my time worrying about all of the details or perfection or acceptance. I want to simply treasure Jesus.

I think that Francesca Battistelli's new song, "You're Here," pretty much sums up Mary's experience and the prayer for my life:

Hold on now, i gotta take a deep breath
I don`t know what to say when i look in your eyes

The way the world was before you were born

Here i am holding you in my arms tonight

Noel, noel, Jesus our Emmanuel

You`re here, i`m holding you so near

I`m staring into the face of my Savior, King and Creator

You could`ve left us on our own, but you`re here

don`t know how long i`m gonna have you for

But i`ll be watching when you change the world

Look in your hand, they`re still so small

Someday you`re going to stretch them out and save us all

Noel, noel, God with us Emmanuel

You`re here, i`m holding you so near

I`m staring into the face of my Savior, King and Creator

You could`ve left us on our own, but you`re here

someday i`m gonna look back on this

The night that God became a baby boy

Someday i`m gonna go home again,

But you leave your spirit and flood the world with joy

you`re here hallelujah

You`re here......