Remember the Child

My baby turns seven today. Every year on my children’s birthdays I go through the memories of pregnancy and birth. I remember the hopes, and dreams and fears involved with getting them here.
The birth of my now seven-year-old was particularly dramatic. He came six weeks early and I had a combination of complications ranging from preeclampsia to incompetent cervix. It was a very challenging time for me.
But now my perfectly healthy little boy keeps hugging me and thanking me for his birthday present. Upon his request we gave him the little boy’s answer to the Easy Bake Oven, a Creepy Crawly Bug Maker.
It has all the things to appeal to a little boy. The heating element has a hint of danger, the green glow-in-the-dark goop used to make the bugs is disgusting, and the end results are creepy crawly bugs! Who could ask for anything more?
Our plans for today include a visit from his buddy who moved to another town in July and dinner at a themed restaurant where every 30 minutes “cliff divers” put on a show for the crowd.
Today should be wild, crazy, fun.
Meanwhile, I’m still trying to get a newsletter written, put tags and bows on all the Christmas presents, and interview three Santas for a feature story due tomorrow. Did I mention my fever of 101 degrees F, my coughing until my ribs ache, and the pig-sty that is my house? It’s going to be a fun day!
But if I think my life is too crazy and hectic, and simply unmanageable, I only have to look into the face of my little miracle child. Seven years ago I brought him into the world, thanks to the marvels of modern medicine, an amazing OBGYN, and most of all, God’s grace.
He has brought joy to my life every day since that first moment he took a breath.
I gave birth to him on a Sunday, and I remember holding him in my hospital bed, listening to carolers wander the halls and sing of a newborn babe. Later, my now 11-year-old son, who was four at the time, came to visit me. He brought me a tiny manger he had built in church. I still have that little crèche built of Popsicle sticks, cradling a tiny little wooden baby wrapped in white cloth.
Now is as good a time as any to remember the miracle of birth, any birth, most particularly the miracle of the birth of my Savior, who is Christ the Lord.