Infant God, the Almighty cradled, the Eternal born and the Omnipresent God held in the arms of a woman, we confess that we cannot get our heads around Your mystery. We cannot put our finger on how You are God in heaven and God with us.  We don’t know how You mixed divinity and dirt to make Jesus.  But, here he is: Emmanuel.

And here we are, declaring that You are indescribable, that Your plan for us was unfathomable.  Entering the earth through the womb of a woman, smuggling divinity in an earthen vessel, we still don’t look for You in her.  Still, You called a woman.  Included in Your plan, in the conversation and this relationship with You, she is not a third wheel but our wheels are turning.

Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of Mary.  Birthing God, she pushed out the hands that hold us all.  “You’ve got the whole world in Your hands” and yet, You are God held in a belly.  You know us inside out.

You have walked in our shoes. You have lived in a womb.  So then, the resurrection was easy.

What’s three days in a grave when You spent nine months in the frame of a woman?

So then, we ask Your forgiveness for the ways we have normalized and simplified Your entry into the world.  Thank You for squeezing into the womb of a woman just to get next to us, for leaving heaven to share space with her organs, for trading a choir of angels for the lullabies of a mother.  Thank You for not thinking that we were beneath You but subjecting Your royalty to the regular and mundane.  Better than bootstraps, You pulled Yourself out of a womb and this is why all the glory belongs to You.

As we worship, set us free from the limitations of this flesh so we might “worship You in spirit and in truth” (John 4.24).  As we worship, give us the vision to see You in unlikely places and with people we wouldn’t have chosen for You– because You are God with all of us.  In Jesus’ name, we pray.  Amen.