Mother's love

"It moves one's heart to think:

Nine months before I was born

there was a woman who loved me deeply.

She did not know what I was going to be like,

but she loved me

because she carried me in her womb.

And when she gave me birth,

she took me in her arms

because her love was not just beginning -

she conceived it along with me."

(Oscar Romero)

It's hard to understand the love of a mother for their child(ren) until you've become one/had one.  But I believe the above quote from Oscar Romero says it well.  Truly, when a child is born a deep and amazing love is felt, but it is not a love that is just beginning; it is a love that has already been very present, and growing along with the baby.  And though to others around, the love is new because they could not understand what was already present and growing between the mother and child, to the mother the miracle is not feeling that love for the first time, it is finally seeing that life which you have loved deeply for so long. It's like being reunited with a long-time love...and then some!  

No time do I find this truth more beautiful than now, at Christmas.  Not only do we celebrate Christ's being born of Mary, born to a love already growing and waiting for him in her heart; but we recognize that Christ was also born of GOD.  And that love, even more so than Mary's, was conceived long before Christ was put in the earthly manger.  That love was being conceived since the beginning of the world - GOD knowing and loving His Son, long before Jesus was born.  

But it was a love not just for the baby and person of Jesus.  A love was being conceived, growing, already present and deep and strong since the beginning of time, for the persons of all of humanity, for all of us!  Jesus' birth was an awakening of love not for that baby, but for each and every child ever born and ever yet to be born.  An awakening of a love not just beginning, but one that had existed long before, which now was finally made visible in that Christ Child's life.   
 This is what Christmas is about - Jesus' birth as a reuniting of GOD to us, long-lost loves; as a way for us to finally see that love which GOD has had for us since the creation of creation, growing constantly deeper and stronger, until finally it could be expressed in a newly tangible way when the baby arrived.  GOD our Mother brought a life into the world and a love that had existed since the dawn of everything was finally able to be seen by all those around, those who didn't yet quite understand the greatness of that love.  

"It moves my heart to think:

Thousands and millions of years before I was born

there was a GOD who loved me deeply.

She knew what I was going to be like,

and She loved me

because She created me in her divine womb, along with the whole universe.

And when my parents gave me birth,

GOD too took me in Her arms      

because Her love was not just beginning - 

it had been conceived along with the world!"  

I pray that this Christmas, those who still struggle to feel or understand the love that is always present for them, always has and always will, will be reunited with this long-time love, will see and feel it, and will cherish it, as a mother for her child.      

In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things came to be through him,
and without him nothing came to be.
What came to be through him was life,
and this life was the light for the whole human race;
the light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness has not overcome it.

...And the Word became flesh
and made his dwelling among us,
and we saw his glory,
the glory as of God's Son,
full of grace and truth.

May GOD, the Mother of us all, bless you with love and all the gifts love brings this Christmas!