PBPC Advent Devotional, Week 4 - Monday
Week Four – Love
The Bible talks about several kinds of love, like the love between friends, or between husband and wife, or between parent and child. But this love is the love of God for Jesus and of Jesus for us. It is a decision and a promise of an unfailing relationship of delight and well-being. And the love we see in the birth of Jesus on earth foreshadows the love exhibited in his death.
Monday
Luke 2:6-7
6 While [Joseph and Mary] were [in Bethlehem], the time came for her to deliver her child. 7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and swaddled him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. (Personal translation)
We hear these words and think of the peaceful old carol Away in a Manger. But birth is bloody and messy, painful and exhausting for the mom, and for the baby, too. And Jesus' mom tenderly swaddles Jesus to calm him. The familiar song asks,
"Mary, did you know… that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child whom you've delivered, will soon deliver you."
And some years later, she would have to watch him go through his own bloody, messy agony. She would seek him in a burial cave, again to wrap him.
Reflect on these actions of love. Mary's love, Joseph's love, Jesus' love. What similarities and differences do you notice?
