One of the things we have picked up on in our Home For Christmas series is the way that Mary makes a home for Jesus, initially in her heart, head and indeed in her very body as she carries him in her womb.
This has striking implications for us. As well as the reminder that we welcome Christ into our whole lives, it also speaks to the joy and privilege of parenting, including being a mother to a baby in the womb. Jesus isn’t just a bundle of cells that evolve into something but only independent life when he is born. Mary’s womb is home to a living person.
Implication 1. There is honour in motherhood. We should value mums.
Implication 2. We should take seriously the loss and grief of a miscarriage or still birth. Churches need to pay more attention to how we mourn with those who have suffered this loss and support them. I also wonder whether even the language of “losing your baby” is unhelpful as it could sound like we are saying the parents have misplaced their child and make them responsible.
Implication 3. We need to keep speaking up on abortion. This may come with great compassion to mums who have been pressurized by society or who have suffered including those who have become pregnant through rape. We need to acknowledge the hardness of the hard cases. However, there still needs to be clarity that abortion is wrong and we need to redouble our efforts at speaking up on this.
Faithroots 