Swaddling Clothes

Luke 2 .... she brought forth her firstborn Son and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths....

In your arms you cradle a new life.. so small...so fragile. You gently run your hand over each velvety arm and tiny finger and your heart is overwhelmed... there are no words.  For this moment, nothing else in the world matters.  In the next moment you are disrupted by nurses, doctors and blood tests and the harsh reality that life cannot stay frozen in time.  A confident nurse takes a receiving blanket, parks the baby in the center, arms flat by his side, and in a flash, meticulously folds the little angel into a snug cocoon.  She says it would make him feel secure and help his limbs straighten out;  'it's how all good mommies wrap their babies'.  It's called swaddling.

In Mary's day, every good, expectant mother brought the baby's linen swaddling cloths (strips of fabric) with her when her due date was near.  I'm sure that as she packed them for the trip, she dreamed of the precious life they would soon be wrapped around.  "So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.  And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths and laid Him in a manger".

Mary gently wrapped her Christmas gift in swaddling cloths to warm and secure him.  The One who set the planets in motion and created all things by His word, saw us lost, with no chance of heaven.  In an act of love, beyond our imagining, He entrusted His Son to Mary that Christmas day to fulfill His mission to reconcile us to Himself.  The child to whom she would give physical birth, would soon provide her with a spiritual birth.  At Calvary, He would become what we are, sin-covered, so that we could become what He is, righteous before God.

One day, men would take the same body from the cross and 'bind it in strips of linen' (Jn19:40).  These cloths that wrapped life would swaddle His crucified body in death.  But His Majesty cannot be bound by strips of cloth, nor be restrained by earthly things.  "Later Peter ran to the tomb and found the linen cloths lying by themselves and he left, amazed." (Luke 24:1,10).  He knew why He had to come.  He knew what would happen when He got here, and He came anyway. The mission was accomplished. It was time to go home.

This Christmas, may the Savior swaddle you, and those precious to you, in His amazing love!