A Concord Pastor Comments: Pause for Prayer: SUNDAY 1/9

Sculpture by Timothy P. Schmalz

Last Sunday we celebrated the magi visiting the Christ Child and this week his baptism, some 30 years later! The gospels tell us very little of the intervening decades. In our prayer today, let's wonder at what the life of the Holy Family may have been...

Mary and Joseph,

what joy you must have taken in your child

when, finally, you were able to settle down:

first there was the trip to be enrolled in Bethlehem;

then the unusual visitors

from the heavens, from the fields, and from the East;

then fleeing to Egypt for your child's safety

and finally, then, back home to Nazareth...

How grateful you must have been

just to be home, with your child...

What joy you must have taken in showing him off
   to your family and neighbors!
Did they think him as handsome a child as you did?

Did you sit, as parents do, simply watching him?
   Watching him sleep, watching his every move?

Did you look into his eyes to see if he knew you?
   And what did you see in his eyes?

Do you remember his first word?
   God's Word made flesh, just beginning to speak?

Do you remember seeing him smile

for the first time?

And his first step:
did you wonder where his path would take him?

What did you wonder as you watched him grow up,

become a teenager, a young man,

a preacher? a teacher filled with wisdom?

Did you dream or imagine
all that would come to pass,

what his future would be,

how your Child, born in Bethlehem

would become the future of us all?

As the Christmas season closes, Lord,

bring us home to be with you,

to hold you in our hearts,

to nurse upon your wisdom,

to listen for your words of love

and trust you speak them now to us...

Amen.

Mary, Did You Know by Pentatonix

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Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Would one day walk on water?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy
Has come to make you new?
This child that you delivered, will soon deliver you

Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Will give sight to a blind man?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Will calm the storm with his hand?

Did you know that your baby boy
Has walked where angels trod?
When you kiss your little baby
You kiss the face of God

Mary, did you know?
Mary, did you know?
Mary, did you know? Did you know?
Mary, did you know? Mary, did you know?
Mary, did you know? Mary, did you know?
Mary, did you know? Mary, did you know?

The blind will see, the deaf will hear
The dead will live again
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak
The praises of the Lamb

Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Is Lord of all creation?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Would one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy
Is heaven's perfect Lamb?
That sleeping child you're holding is the great, I Am

Mary, did you know? (Mary, did you know?)
Mary, did you know? (Mary, did you know?)
Mary, did you know? Oh