Baby On Board!

Galatians 4:4-5 -- "But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons."

Image: Clive Goddard  [cartoonstock.com]

The house filled up with warm laughter, the smell of coffee, and the din of little ones giggling as they scampered up and down the stairs, getting into trouble for it because "the stairs are not toys!".  Most of us gravitated toward to the back porch where Grandma was seated.  We didn't end up there just because that's where the gifts would be passed around, but because that's where Grandma was. The porch was her dream and when it was finished, it became the heart of the festivities.

As we collected out there, surrounded by Florida beauty - Cypress tress, hanging Spanish Moss, and a Heron or two on the banks of the Saint Johns River, some one eventually played Santa [usually the littlest ones to keep them busy]. Let the passing around of gifts ensue! ...Followed, of course, by the inevitable wrapping paper fight.

It was rumored that Grandpa Claude Saunders himself rolled up the first ball of discarded Christmas wrapping paper and threw it at an unsuspecting passer-by. I don't know about that, and he's no longer here to defend himself - but no matter how it was started,  we are more than happy to keep the tradition going. That is, until one of us gets hits too hard in the face and we get into trouble...and Grandma tells us to settle down and knock it off before somebody REALLY gets hurt.

Yes. We're adults.

My favorite part? The stories. 

Especially Grandma's stories. She is now the family Elder and I like to tease the memories out of her before they fade too far into the past and can no longer be stolen back from that ultimate of all thieves, time. When she gets going, there's not a dry eye in the house - we all get to laughing so hard.

I asked her once, how many of her children were actually born in the hospital. I can't remember the exact number but I DO remember that at least two of them were born in the car on the way there. You see, "way back then" there was no such thing as Orange Park Hospital. Grandma had to get from Doctor's Lake Drive to Gainesville in order to get to the delivery room, and a couple of her little ones just weren't going to wait that long to make their entrance.

Can you imagine that? Giving birth in the car? Ugh. you should see the floor board of my car. My husband eats his lunch in there at lot ... so, well, you can imagine. I wouldn't want to have a baby in it. Where would you put the IV drip? Where would the doctor sit? How would he fit the nurses in there or all that stuff they need to clean the baby up after he/she is born?

Gives me the willies thinkin' about it. I think they must have been a tougher breed of women back in Grandma's day. Ya know, give birth in the mornin', go do chores that afternoon with a newborn strapped to your back or hip.

I tell ya what, Grandma gave a whole new meaning to that little slogan "Baby on Board!".

Now imagine....what Mary must have gone through. She didn't even have the luxury of an automobile. She didn't even have that kind of privacy. No delivery rooms. No doctors.

Wow. Just .... Wow.

And don't even get me started on that donkey ride. Ugh!

I am so very thankful for Christmas. Trust me, I know I get super, super grumpy. At the traffic. At the crowds that run me over with their over-filled buggies. At the chaos and the commercialism. But for the REAL Christmas .... I am so very, very thankful. We are redeemed because God gave us His Son.

How could I NOT want to celebrate that?