Be a Womb

“What is it that delivers Christ into the world—preaching, art, writing, scholarship, social justice?  Thos are all gifts well worth sharing.  But preachers lose their charisma, scholarship grows pedantic, social justice alone cannot save us.  In the end, when all other human gifts have met their inevitable limitation, it is the recollected one, the bold virgin with a heart in love with God who makes a sanctuary of her life, who delivers Christ who then delivers us.

Try it.

Leave behind your briefcase and notes and proof texts.  Leave behind your honed skills and knowledge.  Leave the Christmas decorations up in the attic.  Go to someone in need and say, “Here, all I have is Christ.” And find out that that is enough.

The intensity and strain that many of us  bring to Christmas must suggest to some onlookers that, on the whole, Christians do not seem to have gotten the point of it.  Probably few of us have the faith or the nerve to tamper with hallowed Christmas traditions on a large scale, or with our other holiday celebrations.  But a small experiment might prove interesting.  What if, instead of doing something, we were to be something special?  Be a womb.  Be a dwelling for God.  Be surprised.” 

From To Be a Virgin by Loretta Ross-Gotta, inWatch for the Light: Readings for Advent and Christmas