Woman-Born

But when the right time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman… (Galatians 4:4)

I’m captured by the vulnerability of the Sent-Son being Woman-Born. That’s the word: vulnerability. Birth has lots of vulnerabilities.

A lot can go wrong in childbirth! (And I assume a lot more in 1^st century Palestine than even now.) There is the possibility of umbilical cords wrapped around necks (like a friend of mine who’s in his 60s, whose life has been spent without walking). There is less-than-sanitary environment for delivery (and how did that happen? Did Joseph handle the duties? The midwife is not mentioned). And the Scripture makes clear that his place of birth delivery was in a feeding trough utilized by livestock. (“Lord, that’s almost a bit too much on the vulnerability scale!”)

Then, after woman-born, there were the first few weeks of infant-raising: childhood diseases, need for proper nutrition, warm clothes to wear and warm place to sleep (and remember, the long journey to Egypt was ahead, and we will assume that wasn’t with an upgrade to business class). And from there, we can talk about child-rearing, and all that goes with bringing up a son…

The “born of a woman” designation indicates he entered life like all of us. He shared that entrance-to-humanity piece with us. What is more common to the human experience than all of us being born of a woman? Do we know of anyone who has ever lived who wasn’t born of a woman (excepting Adam and Eve)?

So, we have a common starting point, shared vulnerabilities. Get the feeling that he wanted to identify with us, right out of the womb?

But some say, “God is so far off! So un-findable! So un-reachable! He can’t relate to us. He’s up there, and we are down here, and I don’t think he even knows what we are going through!”

Better think again.

“Father, thank you for choosing the advent, or coming, of your Son to this world through the means common to all of us, through a mother. We celebrate his arrival on this Christmas Day! You didn’t drop Him out of the sky as an adult; he didn’t suddenly appear at age 10; he didn’t escape the vulnerabilities common to all childbirth. Thank you for his identifying with us in this common arrival!”