What Child Is This?

By Willow Sanders
      Director of Student Services

I think about the Christmas story a lot.

Like A LOT a lot.

Maybe it’s because I’ve heard it for years weaved in and out of my childhood. Maybe it’s because as I entered my young adult years I began to relate to it in a way I never saw before. Or maybe as I am decades in, as an adult in the world of crisis pregnancy, I see SO much more with each pregnancy appointment that points back to a time thousands of years ago that was likely just as scary, unsure, and scandalous as any day here in our center.

The time was between 6 and 4 B.C. and culture in that day wasn’t too different than today.

Okay, there are a few glaring differences, like cell phones and Uber, but the things Mary was facing...I see the same factors happening today.

Go there. She’s a girl about 15 years old. She’s taken the steps to move towards a new life with Joseph. She’s got all the dreams in her head about what life will be like. Then suddenly life changes dramatically.

SCANDALOUSLY.

She is completely freaked out at first, not understanding what is happening. I am sure in those moments with the angel a million thoughts are running through her head. Yet, in the midst of that moment, calm comes to her. She is reassured that this isn’t a bad thing and it will work out for good.

Then comes Joseph, I’m sure she realized she had to tell this guy. This man that she was about to do life with HAD to know what was coming. What would he say? How would he react? All the time, an angel already speaking to Joseph preparing his heart.

ALL these pieces of the story leading up to Jesus’ birth just floor me in reflection of the architecture of many crisis pregnancies and the work that goes on inside centers like Care Net across the country. Do you see it?

Unexpected circumstances.

Seamlessly timed intervention.

Mind-blowing acceptance pre-prepared.

A safe place when there was just no place else to go.

And in the end a child, born into a world so in need of hope, a child with a purpose.

Probably my favorite Christmas song is, “Mary Did You Know?” Like I said, what was maybe only moments must have seemed like an eternity to her. Realizing she was carrying someone so great. Someone who mattered so greatly.

I think about that for our clients too. Do they know? Can we help be that voice of reassurance that this baby matters? Can we help them find hope for his or her future? Can we be a place of safety and refuge in a difficult time? Can we remember the calculated process God used via a crisis pregnancy to explain how precious theirs is to Him? That this is no mere coincidence, but just like every birth before Him and every birth since, theirs begs the question:

What Child is This?