This is a Guest Post From My Wife… read on:

On Christmas, we watched The Nativity Story. Have you seen this movie? It was our first time watching it. It is certainly going to become a new Christmas tradition. Yes, there were some parts of it that we really probably pretty inaccurate (oh, hello wiseman showing up right after Jesus is born!) but the story itself was pretty great to see on Christmas day.

This year was a bit different for me. For the first time, I really thought about Mary’s experience. I’m not sure why but I’ve just never really focused on Mary in this story. It was always still about Jesus for me. But really, if it hadn’t been for Mary’s faith and Joseph’s patience and trust, we could be celebrating a very different Christmas story. The Nativity Story really put it into perspective for me. First, she’s tiny. The girl was like 15. That’s insane. I realize that things were done younger in those days…but come on. I’m ten years older than her and not at all ready to become a mother. Here she is, a teenager, and she not only has to become a mother but she has to become the mother to the Savior of the entire world. Oh yeah, and she has to convince her fiancé that she was still a virgin. No big deal.

Watching the movie also made me empathize with her on a purely physical basis. There I was, sitting on my couch, uncomfortable as all get out. I have certainly hit the “I can never get comfortable” phase of the pregnancy. I am rotund, people. It hurts to sit. It hurts to stand. It hurts to lie down. I am just UNCOMFORTABLE. And as I am sitting there shifting my weight, trying to get comfortable on my nice plush couch, I see Mary getting up on a flippin’ donkey about to ride on that little guy for 100 miles to Bethlehem. Seriously? I can’t get comfortable on my couch…and this girl is fixing to take a bumpy camel ride for days and days just to be counted in some census. That, my friends, is crazy talk. But she did it. Because she is so good and faithful—not just to God but to her wonderful, trusting husband.

Okay…I have a confession to make. You see, I had this grandiose vision of blogging about how different my perspective is after experiencing the Christmas season carrying my own sweet little boy. I thought I’d have some poignant words that would make you guys say, “oh yeah.” But I am realizing I don’t. I think that my experience this season was really too personal to put into words. I just can’t seem to think of the right way to describe any of what I felt as I read the familiar story and watched the Nativity Story and listened to the sermons…so I guess I’ll just keep it to myself. I don’t think I could find a way to adequately share it anyway. But I do have to say that I am grateful for the experience I had and so grateful for the insight I gained into this wonderful woman’s experience. Elizabeth was right when she said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!” Mary was so good and so blessed. She was such a strong woman and I can only pray to have a fraction of her faith. Too bad it took me getting knocked up to realize it. But…you know what they say: God works in mysterious ways.