Sometimes I just chuckle and even laugh out loud because of how much I enjoy and relate to your writing. One of the ways that the Bible has come alive again to me is when I embraced it as a fully human book. Crazy, right?! A book written by humans actually being human! That was a significant part of my deconstruction and reconstruction. Your descriptions and relating to the experience of birth and cultural context (which is human context) brought out numerous things I had not realized or heard before. Of course as a man, I have not experienced pregnancy and childbirth. I have tried to walk alongside my wife for three of them reading books, attending Bradley childbirth classes, studing hypnosis to try and help her cope with pain, and we had two of our kiddos at home as well. Your experience of the birth of your daughter totally encapsulates the birth of our third daughter, Jade. Less than two or three hours after her birth we were all snuggled in the bed together talking about baby Jade with our two other girls, the doula and midwife having cleaned everything, packed up the birthing pool, and brewed us fresh tea and cookies for the girls. However, the one experience as a husband, father, and man that will stay with me forever occurred during the birth of our second daughter, Hazel. Jen was struggling a bit at the end of the delivery and it was suggested that I could crawl into the tub behind her and let her use me as leverage and something solid to push against. So, I put on my swim shorts and snuck in behind her and I will never forget feeling her body pushing and straining and convulsing to bring that child into the world. I could physically feel what her insides were doing and it was also totally different watching my daughter literally shoot out of her mother into the water like a rocket from that point of view rather than the traditional angle :) Anyway, I think what I am trying to state or capture in my sharing this is that our vantage point impacts our understanding of the moment. Our literal positioning of our body in a moment can radically change our experience of something as it occurs. So that's it for today. Hope you are well!
I'm about seven weeks from giving birth myself and your paragraph about Evelynn's birth made me choke up and blink back tears.
The baby is the thing. The baby. Everyone keeps saying, "The world is on fire. It's been a tough year. Hang in there." And I yearn to be sympathetic, but all I can think about is this baby coming (that it's my tenth makes it no less astonishing), which undergirds me with Joy.
I just want the whole broken burning world to have...you know...a Baby.
How do we know which version is true, when other biblical scholars have a different interpretation? I just struggle. I have looked at the story of Jesus being born alone and Mary being shunned as a source of comfort for the loneliness that I feel as someone without family. I kinda needed the story of Jesus being born in a lowly place or cave as a refugee if that makes any sense.
Hi Lindsay, I feel you about the loneliness. I lived away from family for many decades. Although I had friends and a church community, it’s not the same as being near family or having a committed spouse and sometimes children.
I had the spouse (twice) and then didn’t, and being uncoupled made a difference in how I was welcomed. I did develop a circle of single or divorced women friends who had similar life experiences. I found that my singleness made opportunities for me to be there when other women were catapulted into the widowed or divorced life. I also found that neighbors with families were kind but it didn’t cross their minds to make room for me unless I asked. Mostly because it wasn’t part of their life experience.
I wish for you some comfort and a few close friends.
Well, I just loved this one and you speaketh the truth. The other story a pure and typical patriarchal bit. Thank you for telling your story and for brightening my day.
You didn't ruin anything, you made it a bit more real.
This is gorgeous. I remember when Joseph was born in the parkade! You came to the PW board to report the news and I was imagining what a whirlwind that must have been.
I'm glad God is restoring the voices of women and the realities of Jesus. It's a great thing to embrace what is really true.
This is such a beautiful description of what I’m experiencing in so many facets of my life right now. Thank you for putting it into words, and for lighting a path that I didn’t know existed. So blessed by the wonderful abundance of God’s Love that far exceeds the narrow boundaries of the faith that raised me.
“…the truth is that in my experience the slippery slope has been that it’s actually a lot of fun. I’ve careened down, like a kid in a toboggan on a perfect winter day, with exhilaration and disorientation right into wholeness and life, good news and great joy. I’ve found the joy of being a learner again, of unlearning and relearning God.
It turns out Jesus is even better than we dreamed.
It turns out the Story is bigger and wilder and more generous.”
This writing has been playing over and over in my head since I read it. I shared it with my best friend Jenn. She and I, who were both brought up in conservative homes, sat stunned at the whole thought of this hopeful nativity setting.
You make me actually want to read the Bible again. New eyes. Thank you.
I don’t know what it was about the tea and toast and heavenly Supper of the Lamb that made me pause and sob but it was the part of the story that did me in. This whole write up made my heart full and my mouth agape in complete awe. Thank you for sharing this new welcoming peaceful perspective about the nativity. The home rather than an empty lonely barn and a group of people helping her rather than just Mary and Joseph trying to figure it out on their own. And now I wanna change up my own nativity sets. I think we might have some Barbies or Little People somewhere here in the house. Ah, maybe even some LOL dolls. Perfect. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you.
I have so much to learn and undo, but it is a joy to see Jesus’s birth in this light. Thank you. May we follow Jesus and open our hearts to see where we may have a few wrong ideas about him and his story.
This is lovely and such a comforting way to understand the reality of what Jesus' birth was like. Magical, sacred, real, familial, and part of a web of community.
I appreciate your telling. I found out a few years ago about the descriptions you gave about how and where Jesus was likely born (not in a stable) and I puffed around last week spouting off these facts as i set up our traditional nativity set, threatening to put the wisemen in the other room since they certainly didn’t show up for a while and perhaps move them along incrementally towards Jesus.
Sometimes I just chuckle and even laugh out loud because of how much I enjoy and relate to your writing. One of the ways that the Bible has come alive again to me is when I embraced it as a fully human book. Crazy, right?! A book written by humans actually being human! That was a significant part of my deconstruction and reconstruction. Your descriptions and relating to the experience of birth and cultural context (which is human context) brought out numerous things I had not realized or heard before. Of course as a man, I have not experienced pregnancy and childbirth. I have tried to walk alongside my wife for three of them reading books, attending Bradley childbirth classes, studing hypnosis to try and help her cope with pain, and we had two of our kiddos at home as well. Your experience of the birth of your daughter totally encapsulates the birth of our third daughter, Jade. Less than two or three hours after her birth we were all snuggled in the bed together talking about baby Jade with our two other girls, the doula and midwife having cleaned everything, packed up the birthing pool, and brewed us fresh tea and cookies for the girls. However, the one experience as a husband, father, and man that will stay with me forever occurred during the birth of our second daughter, Hazel. Jen was struggling a bit at the end of the delivery and it was suggested that I could crawl into the tub behind her and let her use me as leverage and something solid to push against. So, I put on my swim shorts and snuck in behind her and I will never forget feeling her body pushing and straining and convulsing to bring that child into the world. I could physically feel what her insides were doing and it was also totally different watching my daughter literally shoot out of her mother into the water like a rocket from that point of view rather than the traditional angle :) Anyway, I think what I am trying to state or capture in my sharing this is that our vantage point impacts our understanding of the moment. Our literal positioning of our body in a moment can radically change our experience of something as it occurs. So that's it for today. Hope you are well!
I'm about seven weeks from giving birth myself and your paragraph about Evelynn's birth made me choke up and blink back tears.
The baby is the thing. The baby. Everyone keeps saying, "The world is on fire. It's been a tough year. Hang in there." And I yearn to be sympathetic, but all I can think about is this baby coming (that it's my tenth makes it no less astonishing), which undergirds me with Joy.
I just want the whole broken burning world to have...you know...a Baby.
How do we know which version is true, when other biblical scholars have a different interpretation? I just struggle. I have looked at the story of Jesus being born alone and Mary being shunned as a source of comfort for the loneliness that I feel as someone without family. I kinda needed the story of Jesus being born in a lowly place or cave as a refugee if that makes any sense.
Hi Lindsay, I feel you about the loneliness. I lived away from family for many decades. Although I had friends and a church community, it’s not the same as being near family or having a committed spouse and sometimes children.
I had the spouse (twice) and then didn’t, and being uncoupled made a difference in how I was welcomed. I did develop a circle of single or divorced women friends who had similar life experiences. I found that my singleness made opportunities for me to be there when other women were catapulted into the widowed or divorced life. I also found that neighbors with families were kind but it didn’t cross their minds to make room for me unless I asked. Mostly because it wasn’t part of their life experience.
I wish for you some comfort and a few close friends.
Well, I just loved this one and you speaketh the truth. The other story a pure and typical patriarchal bit. Thank you for telling your story and for brightening my day.
You didn't ruin anything, you made it a bit more real.
This is gorgeous. I remember when Joseph was born in the parkade! You came to the PW board to report the news and I was imagining what a whirlwind that must have been.
I'm glad God is restoring the voices of women and the realities of Jesus. It's a great thing to embrace what is really true.
This very morning, one of my besties sent a reel to our group chat about Jesus and the midwives and so forth.
Spirit and her timing never ceases to make me smile. 😊
I’m so glad you wrote this. I’ve been aware of this for years and I think it adds dimensions the traditional/inaccruate version cannot.
This is such a beautiful description of what I’m experiencing in so many facets of my life right now. Thank you for putting it into words, and for lighting a path that I didn’t know existed. So blessed by the wonderful abundance of God’s Love that far exceeds the narrow boundaries of the faith that raised me.
“…the truth is that in my experience the slippery slope has been that it’s actually a lot of fun. I’ve careened down, like a kid in a toboggan on a perfect winter day, with exhilaration and disorientation right into wholeness and life, good news and great joy. I’ve found the joy of being a learner again, of unlearning and relearning God.
It turns out Jesus is even better than we dreamed.
It turns out the Story is bigger and wilder and more generous.”
Very powerful. I am learning new things daily if my new evolving faith. Thank you
This writing has been playing over and over in my head since I read it. I shared it with my best friend Jenn. She and I, who were both brought up in conservative homes, sat stunned at the whole thought of this hopeful nativity setting.
You make me actually want to read the Bible again. New eyes. Thank you.
I don’t know what it was about the tea and toast and heavenly Supper of the Lamb that made me pause and sob but it was the part of the story that did me in. This whole write up made my heart full and my mouth agape in complete awe. Thank you for sharing this new welcoming peaceful perspective about the nativity. The home rather than an empty lonely barn and a group of people helping her rather than just Mary and Joseph trying to figure it out on their own. And now I wanna change up my own nativity sets. I think we might have some Barbies or Little People somewhere here in the house. Ah, maybe even some LOL dolls. Perfect. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you.
I have so much to learn and undo, but it is a joy to see Jesus’s birth in this light. Thank you. May we follow Jesus and open our hearts to see where we may have a few wrong ideas about him and his story.
Advent blessings on you all!
This is lovely and such a comforting way to understand the reality of what Jesus' birth was like. Magical, sacred, real, familial, and part of a web of community.
I appreciate your telling. I found out a few years ago about the descriptions you gave about how and where Jesus was likely born (not in a stable) and I puffed around last week spouting off these facts as i set up our traditional nativity set, threatening to put the wisemen in the other room since they certainly didn’t show up for a while and perhaps move them along incrementally towards Jesus.
Bravo!