I bundle the wool wrap tighter around my arms and she looks at me with her large, knowing eyes. They are so pure and expecting, yet satisfied and assured all at once. Her gentle, warm smile removes the bite of the chill in this covered shelter for animals, that I no longer notice the smell of the hay, and everything earthly seems to fade away. She offers me her child without a word, but with a look that says “Behold and SEE…”

His little black eyelashes carefully curl where they rest atop his tiny pink cheeks, and he is sleeping with such deep peace. Suddenly, his little arms jolt ever so gently and the tiny place above his nose and between his eyes furrow into soft folds as he realizes I am not his mother, but someone else. The tiny eyelashes raise slowly and now I am staring into the eyes of the Creator of the Universe. Perhaps it is that title that makes me see the greatest depths of existence in those tiny pools of wisdom, as he examines my face with equal intensity. If I weren’t inside the manger I would think the stars themselves were reflecting in those eyes, but I know it cannot be, and I understand all at once what He is trying to tell me. The depths of His love for my soul, each soul, is immeasurable like the universe. We cannot put a perimeter on it, or conditions or anything. It’s a free gift that has no end. But this love, this immeasurable love, makes me want to respond with my life. I want to do anything and everything for Him. Although I cannot quantify it, I know I will spend my life doing all that I can to serve Him, because now everything is bound up from beginning to end, all for Him.

Before I hand him back to his mother, I understand something else that changes me forever. That He–God–The Creator, has placed Himself helplessly into the arms of mere mortals. He–the King of the Universe, Creator of every molecule and every mountain; every blade of grass and every star–made Himself to be vulnerable. He tells me to do the same.

It’s ok to trust. I have you. You don’t need to know what is next. You don’t need to take on everything yourself. Let me swaddle you as my own infant, rest in me.