In the lingering moments of holding a baby

By Cyndi Alte

There is no sense of urgency for Advent's challenge to prepare ourselves.

I have been reading about holiday stress lately - because the Methodist Hospital gift shop recently put up not one, not two, but three Christmas trees. Already I am feeling stressed about the holidays - and Christmas is more than a month away.

The Internet banners are already plastered across the screen: Ten Easy Steps Guaranteed To Reduce Your Holiday Stress! As I read the plethora of advice available in cyber space, I am more convinced than ever that even in this relatively contemporary medium, there really is nothing new in the world.

We all know how to lessen the stress that comes during November and December - make a plan; budget gift-giving; make a list; spread out the festivities; make meals easy; shop early; choose what is most important; discover the deeper meaning; smell the roses; write what you learn to make next year less stressful; and on and on.

The lists make it all sound so easy. The unfortunate reality is that each of us has experienced the difficulty in miraculously melting away holiday stress. We are, after all, far too busy to stick to these steps, or any others, for that matter.

Along with stores and businesses everywhere, it seems the entire world is rushing us to Christmas before we have the opportunity to linger in the exquisite preparatory season of Advent. In our rush to get to Christmas morning, we miss the joyful realization that God promises to be with us and to come to us again. Without remaining in the mode of Advent anticipation, there is no sense of urgency for Advent's challenge to prepare ourselves and our world for the full coming of God's reign of peace with justice.

It is not just the secular world pushing us through Advent; churches want us to get on with Christmas hymns and liturgy. In our got-to-get-something-done, got-to-get-somewhere world, Christians mirror the world. We have lost the art of lingering.

In the coming season of Advent, I believe I have found the perfect solution to restoring the art of lingering - hold a baby. Really, find a baby to hold. There is nothing like the soft feel of an infant molded and folded into one's arms and body. There is no other sensation in the world like touching the velvet of a baby's skin, smelling the innocence of a newly born infant or listening to the vulnerable, sweet breathing of a baby.

With a child in arms, except for the gentle rocking that is innate in the world of baby-holding, one just stops and lingers, if only for a single moment.

Baby-holding is not advice born out of the sappy notion that the innocence of a baby makes the whole world a better place. Baby-holding is born out of the deep and rich theology that "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father," (John 1:14).

Now is the time to experience in very real ways our God-made-flesh, Emmanuel, now with us. Where better to know God with us than in the lingering moments of holding a baby.

So linger a little. Linger some more. Linger still longer. And know that when you have held a baby, you have beheld God.

Cyndi Alte serves as director of Congregational Health Ministries for Clarian Health Partners in Indianapolis.

Last updated on 25 Apr 2008

Questions or comments: webmaster@inareaumc.org