Daily Diversions (Web Log)

David's Mental Meandering
11th December 2001

Following on the literary theme of the last Meandering… Mrs Holford and I were in Oxford last Sunday for church and our pastor recommended a particular pub for lunch. When we got there, we discovered that it had been a frequent hang-out of the Inklings, that informal groups of writers which included C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Charles Williams. Official known as the Eagle and Child, the Inklings called it the Bird and Baby. (In his university days, our pastor and his friends called it the Fowl and Foetus.) Due to this association, we had quite high expectations.

I can only imagine that these venerable men only used the pub for drink and never for Sunday lunch. If they had, they might still be waiting for their meal. If the premises had been packed, we would have understood some delay in the arrival of our food. The hour and half wait was all for nothing. When our food arrived, the vegetables were raw and the Yorkshire pudding was so soaked in gravy as to be virtually unrecognisable. Mrs Holford informed me that we would be asking for our money back. Well, actually she informed me that I would be going up the to bar and asking for my money back.

The young ladies from St Catherine College who had been sitting at the next table since before we arrived still had no food, and prompted by our actions they also asked for a refund. It may have had something to do with me warning them that if there food were to arrive, it might not be edible.

As it was, we got sandwiches from the petrol station on the way out of the city. It is amazing how delicious such simple food can be after such a long wait.

And speaking of long waits, our bun in the oven is almost done. While everyone has been counting down the days until Christmas, the Yuletide has almost taken us unaware as we looked past it to a more monumental event. Mrs Holford has become quite rotund and only moves from a sitting or reclining position with great difficulty. She really hasn't taken to my latest term of endearment, referring to her as "My little beluga."

Spending the Advent season with a pregnant woman has made me contemplate the Incarnation on a new level. Watching our baby kick and move inside Kelly has filled me with wonder, not just at how our little human is developing, but at how God as a human grew and developed. The Incarnation didn't begin in Bethlehem, but rather in Nazareth. This has given me a new appreciation for the feast of the Annunciation. It doesn't have all of the pomp and pageantry of the Nativity - no gifts, no turkey (in fact, usually no meat, as it is almost always during Lent), no one decorates the Annunciation tree or goes door to door singing Annunciation carols. But it is when God became Man. Did you ever notice that the Annunciation actually get more coverage in Scripture than the Nativity? The former gets 31 verses and the latter only 20.

Our own annunciation was a rather low-key event. I was called into the bathroom to look at a coloured strip of paper bearing the non-verbal message that she was with child. But given that our child is not God, I suppose that was sufficient.

But nonetheless, Advent is like what we are experiencing now. The anticipation of birth is at its highest. The last few weeks are upon us (six weeks in the Eastern Church, four weeks in the West). The Blessed Virgin was full of grace, but I bet she was a bit uncomfortable. God would wake up and wriggle and jab her in the guts. On the way to Bethlehem, St Joseph probably had to stop the donkey all the time for her to get down and pee. (And if that isn't enough to make him worthy to be called "Saint", I don't know what is.)

God was attached to a woman by an umbilicus and was drawing nutrition from her blood into His blood. This was so He could then turn around and shed that blood for her. She was there, too, when her Baby, who had grown inside her for nine months, gave Himself up for the life of the world. In Advent, we don't just anticipate the birth of a Child. We anticipate Calvary.

As I watch and feel our little one move, I know that our child will have the very best thing in life. We can't guarantee wealth and comfort, or even health and happiness. But at the end of the day, those things aren't important. Thanks to Mary's Baby, Christ Jesus our Lord, neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor depth nor height, nor any created thing, will be able to separate our child from the love of God.