Last week I started by saying that I had just taken down my Christmas cards. This week I have just taken down my birthday cards. I’m a New Year baby and according to my family it causes them many problems as it’s so close to Christmas that they have no idea what to get me. I did drop a few hints that a shopping trolley might be a help but it fell on deaf ears.
Many years ago, when I was a midwife, if I was on duty on New Year’s Eve I always tried to be the one to deliver the first baby of the year. I did manage to deliver a few, with one baby being born a few minutes after midnight.
As I’m writing this, I’m trying to imagine the unhygienic conditions into which Jesus was born and with no midwife present and thousands of years after his birth many women are still having babies in terrible conditions. Babies being born into starvation, war zones, freezing tents and hot dry deserts.
A prayer: Heavenly Father, as we celebrate our birthdays, help us to remember that not all birthdays are happy. Lord, be with the families who are suffering and bring them some comfort in their times of stress and need.