Be Born in Me
“Mary took the Lord in her arms; oh that you may bear him in yours.”
-Charles Spurgeon
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Theotokos, Carry Me
Oh Mary, Mother of Heaven
Cradler of all
That is not yet, but will be—
Turn your beatific beaming
Towards me, for I need
A little light.
My bones have grown cold with
Waiting in the dark
For a star that may never rise
Over the nativity of my becoming.
Give me a Word, terra firma
And a stable place
In the hallowed womb of your Assent.
Cover me with the indigo folds of your robe,
Woven of heaven and earth.
Soothe me with the ancient lullaby
You sang long ago to One newly borne
Out of darkness into your arms,
That I might follow your faith through shadows,
Bearing the Light in my embrace.
Theotokos is an ancient name for the Mother of God used especially within the Eastern Orthodox church tradition. Theotokos combines the Greek words for God (Theo) and Bearer (Tokos) to form the title, God-Bearer or God-birther. Ever since I discovered this name, I have been pondering it in my heart—delighted to think of Mary as Theotokos.
So why am I sharing this?
Because the more I have ‘leaned in’ to the prophetic witness of Mary this Advent season, a small inkling of a conviction that we are meant to imitate Mary in being God-Bearers has grown stronger and stronger.
This Advent season, I have sensed the Spirit inviting me not only to witness the Holy Mystery of Christmas from two thousand years of distance, but to actually partake in it by making room for the Christ child in my own heart, soul, and life.
Have you ever noticed how there is something about holding a baby that instantly softens us? I remember doing a newborn photoshoot in which a tough-looking grandfather with swear-words on his tee-shirt and tattoos on his body took his newborn granddaughter—the size of his palm—into his burly arms for a photo, looked into her eyes, and simply melted with tenderness and adoration.
This, I believe, is the gift we receive as we learn to hold the wonder and truth of Christ as a helpless infant in our own arms. When we put our desire for human understanding and control aside and choose to kneel at the manger in faith, we are freed to melt into the mystery of Christ’s infinite love and vulnerability in putting on flesh to dwell among us.
And this is a mystery that does not leave us as it finds us, for the love of Christ is too strong and deep for that. It beckons us to come near and be transformed, like Mary, into Christ-bearers: sources of the True Light which the darkness cannot extinguish.
In her essay “The Light of the World,” spiritual writer Evelyn Underhill discusses this concept:
The birth of Christ in our souls is for a purpose beyond ourselves. . .Every Christian is, as it were, part of the dust-laden air which shall radiate the glowing epiphany of God, catch and reflect his golden Light. Ye are the light of the world—but only because you are enkindled, made radiant by the one Light of the world.
Referencing German philosopher Meister Eckhart, she concludes, “The Eternal Birth must take place in you.”
The same Spirit which hovered over the waters of Creation and the waters of Mary’s womb to bring forth life upon life is active in us, longing to birth new life in and through us, too.
The question that remains is this:
Are we (like Mary) living lives that are open and available to the mysterious, creative activity of the Spirit?
This Christmas, may we make room in our hearts for the humble, life-changing “yes” of Mary, letting her faith be born anew in our hearts and carried into a world which is longing for the Light—each one of us, a Theotokos.
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Oh I want to lay
At your feet, heaven child
Oh I want to live
Truly free, running wild
Let it be born in me
Hallelujah
Hope for eternity
Let it be born in me
The weight of humanity
Hinging on his majesty
Hallelujah
Let it be born in me.
—“Let It Be Born in Me”, Wilder Adkins