On the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean . . . nor were you wrapped in swaddling cloths. No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you. ( Ezekiel 16: 4&5)

In this passage the word of the Lord had come to Ezekiel regarding the nation of Israel. The Lord emphasized the absence of care for His people in their early days of slavery in Egypt, when He first rescued them. He is angry in this passage because even though He did rescue and provide for them, they eventually turned away from their God.

This moment in time is a strong contrast to a moment almost six hundred years later—the moment we celebrate at Christmas: While they were there (in Bethlehem) the time came for the baby to be born, and Mary gave birth to her firstborn. She wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, for there was no room for them at the inn. (Luke 2:6-7)In those hundreds of years God brought about such a change in Israel that He was able to find in the spirit and life of a young woman, a soul who would say unequivocally, Yes. (Luke 1:38) and mean it enough to bring swaddling cloths to Bethlehem with which to welcome the son she would deliver. Mary’s willing assent to the angel’s message that she would bear God’s son is the pivotal moment of the incarnation.

Hosea attested that in his time there was no such soul in Israel for God to visit with the news he brought to Mary. It was a hard Yes, but one that bore fruit in her son when he wrestled in the garden of Gethsemane, and also answered Yes to his Father God.

Mary’s Yes reverberates through all time, and shapes a relationship between God and mankind, through Christ, the immediate fruit of her Yes. In Mary, God found a partner who would share His plan for humanity, without even knowing or understanding the plan. At a time when Israel had been overcome by Rome, Mary’s faith and perspective were rooted in God’s history with the patriarchs: He (God) has helped His servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as He promised our ancestors. (Luke 1:54-55)

When I read in Ezekiel about God’s anger and pain at being betrayed by the people He had rescued from Egypt, I’m awed at His patience and endless capacity to forgive and renew His people. In His introducing His son to the world, my awe turns to amazement at the plan that unfolds, wrapping the history of Israel in swaddling cloths, first of His own supply, and then of Mary’s willing participation. The mystery of the incarnation always inspires.

Love in Him,

Prue