“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 cloths. No one looked on you with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for you.” (Ezekiel 16: 4-5)

These are the words of God spoken by the prophet Ezekiel to the people of Israel who had been condemned to go into exile for their idolatry and other sins. The prophet reminds the people of their history and of their helplessness before God had chosen them to be His own.

More than five hundred years later, an angel of God appeared to shepherds who were in a field watching their sheep. The angel spoke to the shepherds of the birth of an infant savior which had occurred that very night. The savior was not merely a prophet, but the long expected son of God Himself . The sign that would reassure the shepherds was the swaddling cloths in which they would find him wrapped: “You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger. (Luke 2:12)

The swaddling cloths were proof that the baby’s mother, Mary, had consciously prepared for the arrival of the little one. Perhaps her mother had helped her pack for the trip to Bethlehem, but in any case this baby was prepared for and welcomed into the arms of Mary, who loved him and who believed in him from the angel Gabriel’s message to her.

What a difference from Ezekiel’s picture of the infant nation of Israel, and what a distance from those early days when no human reached out in love to the Hebrew people, but God Himself brought them to life as a nation. It was many generations before there was a young woman in Israel who would say “Let it be to me as you have said,” in order to bring God’s son into the world. (Luke 2:12) The sign to the shepherds would be swaddling cloths, for they signaled a preparation and a welcoming for the baby. No more was Israel, or any of mankind, to be without pity and unclean, for this baby was welcomed by Mary and Joseph, who knew that they had been chosen by God for this entirely unique purpose.

We call Jesus’ birth, the “Incarnation,” for it signals a union between God and humanity that would be entirely new. Mary and Joseph’s bond with their creator God was displayed in their willing obedience and in the swaddling cloths that were a sign to the shepherds.

Love in Him,

Prue