Few things can compare to a mother’s love for her child.  Few things can inspire such tenderness in all of our hearts like a helpless little newborn.  It’s easy to forget in the midst of that familiar story an essential element to the Christmas story.  Mary was found with child of the Holy Ghost, and she carried Him in her womb for nine months, and then she gave birth to her firstborn son in that cold and dirty stable in Bethlehem.  We recognize Mary as the mother of Jesus, the vessel God used to bring His Son into our world.  And even though Jesus wasn’t her biological child, she bore Him as if He were.  She mothered Him as if He were.  She loved Him as if He were.  She held Him closer than anyone on Earth ever would.

In a lot of ways, it is God’s love that enables us to love others.  And in a way, it was ignited in the heart of Mary in a profound way through carrying the Christ child.  And because Jesus was born and lived and then died and rose again, we can know that same kind of close, intimate, and profound love ourselves.  We can’t really help but love a little baby.  But after knowing who Jesus is and what He’s done, we can’t help but love Him, too.

1 John 4:7-9
Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.  He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.  In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

So maybe this year when we sing those songs about Mary and her baby and we see the nativity scenes with a little boy laying in a manger, we can think about the amazing truth that Love came down, and we can have a close and personal connection to God Himself that can never be severed.  We can draw near and have a special relationship with Jesus that will be unlike every other relationship we ever have.  We can experience love on a deep level that can change everything else in our lives.  So let’s allow the love of God to fill our hearts this Christmas.