Merry Christmas to all my friends and family!
What a difference a baby makes in the lives of any family!  It is truly magical to see the awe, wonder, and complete love in the faces of new parents as they hold their baby for the first time.  As a labor and delivery nurse, I have had the great privilege to share this uniquely beautiful moment hundreds of times, and it never loses its wonder for me.
Today, I think of the moment that Mary and Joseph held Jesus in their arms for the first time - what a mix of emotions they must have felt!  They surely felt all the same feelings of love and joy that all new parents feel.  But, to know that they held God's own Son in their arms must have been truly incredible!
And to know that this Baby embodied the promise of man's redemption and hope for salvation must have been awe-inspiring, in the truest sense of the word!
I love the words of Richard Crashaw (1613-1649), in his Hymn of the Nativity :

"We saw thee in thy balmy nest,
  Bright Dawn of our eternal day;
  We saw thine eyes break from the East
  and chase the trembling shades away.
  We saw thee and we blessed the sight,
  We saw thee by thine own sweet light.

  Welcome to our wondering sight
  Eternity shut in a span,
  Summer in winter!  Day in night!
  Heaven in earth!  and God in man!
  Great little one, whose glorious birth
  Lifts earth to heaven,
  Stoops heaven to earth."

May this Christmas bring a new realization of God's love for you, and awe at the difference this Baby, our Savior Jesus Christ, makes in our lives!
With my love,
Nancy