It's a boy!

Seems like the holidays produce a lot of pregnant women; as the joke goes, it’s either those cold winter nights or the blush of spring in the air that brings people together nine months earlier. In either case, within traditional families, the anticipation and planning for a birth is filled with excitement and joy.

Birthings are drawn out affairs that include family visits, baby showers, shopping excursions, renovations to living spaces, and doctor visits. There’s a lot of planning and dreaming and celebrating. It’s a time of tremendous anticipation. 

Everyone wants to get in on it, whether it’s finding out the planned name, guessing the gender, or starting an office pool for date and weight. Some people see a pregnant mom as a chance to tell their own story, the more fantastic the better: like 36 hours in labor, starting out too late and having the baby in a cab, or perhaps the baby almost died, the mother almost died, the doctor was late, the nurse was late, the father was late, and so on.

Of course, not all births are a blast. There are single moms out there who are faced with daily tears and fears of how they will support a child alone. Too often extended families are less than supportive and sometimes, the birth father is completely absent, or perhaps even worse, uninterested and cavalier. Despite these challenges, the baby within persists, speaking a kind of hope that is uniquely its own.

After all, almost every gynecologist’s office has a plaque somewhere that says, “A Baby is God's Way of Saying That the World Should Go On.”

At Christmas, it is the Christian tradition to celebrate the birth of Christ. Hopefully, most people know by now that December 25th is not the actual birth date of Jesus of Nazareth, who was probably born in the spring. But this time of year brings the shortest daylight hours and long dark nights and as a result, for centuries, the winter solstice was marked and celebrated. Some have even called this a “pagan” time, but really, it’s a fitting time to mark the “beginnings” of the faith, the birth (or emergence) of the Christ, a promised to change the world. The birth of Christ is an ongoing celebration of hope, love, and joy. 

At Restore Church, this is the voice that is heard: Rejoice! Hope! Anything can still happen; anything can still change; anything is possible in the light of Christ which transforms people from the inside out.

Come celebrate with us. It’s a baby! It’s a promise. 

Each week in December at Restore Church in our Christmas sermon series, “Undercover Boss: Christmas Edition,” will look at the life of Jesus as He traded the comfort of the corner office in Heaven for an undercover mission to change the world. In addition to our regular Sunday services in December, we’re planning two special services the week before Christmas.

(1) Join us on Tuesday, 12/20 at 7 PM for a special Candlelight Service at the Good Cause Community Center (616 Ontario Street, Havre de Grace)!  

(2) Join us on Saturday, 12/24 at 5 & 6:30 PM for special Christmas Eve services at Havre de Grace’s Community Center (100 Lagaret Lane, Havre de Grace)!

Expect great things as we celebrate the birth of Christ “Undercover Boss” style!

--Jess Bousa, Lead Pastor of Restore Church