The Look of Love

What was in her heart as she looked at him?  What thoughts, feelings, imaginings filled Mary as she gazed upon her son, Jesus?  Did she imagine, as all mothers do, what he might become?  Perhaps she saw some things, but could she have imagined it all?  Did she think, as all mothers do, that there could be no more beautiful baby in the whole world?

As all mothers do, surely she loved him, her "firstborn son."  And in loving, she let herself be led by him.  Children change their unsuspecting parents:  a woman is never the same once she is "mother," nor a man, once "father".  How time is spent, what rates as first priorities and secondary concerns, what brings joy and counts as sorrow--they all change.  The look of love changes us.  The look of this love, changed her.

What is in our hearts as we look at him?  This child "born to us," this son, "given us."  By some great mystery he is "ours" as surely as he was Mary's.

As we see him (look long and lovingly at the manger scene in church and at home), the question is:  will we allow ourselves to know him as "ours" -- to feel that "for us and for our salvation he came down"?  Do we love him enough to let him lead us, to let Love change us?