She held the hair of the donkey as she concentrated on balancing her pregnant body on the edge of its spine. Opening her dust-caked eyes she saw her fatigued husband navigating the donkey through the rocky hillside. She pressed her parched lips closed as a means of both protection from the vast clouds of dirt and to hold back her desire to vomit.
Two royal babies
As the world nears Christmas, it seems people are getting a bit mixed up with which royal baby to celebrate.
Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, recently prompted international attention after announcing that she was pregnant with a child, who would be third in line to the British throne. The news broke Twitter records as the world celebrated the announcement, with #royalbaby becoming the quickest trending Twitter hashtag of all time.
Amongst the media frenzy, and Kate's subsequent hospitalisation, sits the story of another royal baby and his mother, Mary. The young virgin girl gave birth to the son of God after a long journey, on a donkey, at nine months pregnant. The arrival of baby Jesus was extremely unconventional and rugby fields away from being predictable. It left the wisest of men confused and made the King nervous.
An inconvenient entrance
Mary's story of a virgin conception would have sounded too fantastical to imagine. Realistically speaking it was impossible and would have made a really good Dr. Phil episode. Poor Joseph would have been left heart-broken and humiliated, like any male who finds out his fiancée claims to be pregnant after a visit from 'an angel'. Furthermore Mary's parents, who notably are exempt from the bible, would have been mortified.
If I had the chance I would have given God a few pointers. Firstly, he could have made sure Mary had been more qualified / older / educated / wiser / settled / married. Secondly, Gabriel could have given Mary a few encouraging instructions about how things would work out rather than leaving her to do most of the talking. Thirdly, he could have ensured that everyone in Mary's village, or at very least her family, had a visit from an angel.
A God-sized perspective
So why wasn't Jesus just born into a royal family? If someone with the same social standing as Kate Middleton gave birth to Jesus then it could be guaranteed that Jesus would have had millions of anticipating followers. It would have been perfect for God to place Jesus in such a prominent and influential position. It would have been an easier ride for Jesus and his nine-month pregnant, donkey-riding mother and why shouldn't it be when he had the creator of the universe on his side?
There is no denying that God was conveniently and beautifully active in more way than once throughout Mary's pregnancy. He provided her with the support of Joseph who not only spared her life, at a time when women were stoned for adultery, but later chose to take her as his wife. Furthermore, God miraculously gave Elizabeth to Mary in order to teach her about mothering. Mary would have seen Elizabeth giving birth to John, which was extraordinary timing for a 13-year-old who would later give birth on her own.
This is the part of the story when one realises that the creator of the universe has a much wider perspective the situation then us narrow-minded humans. God had a perfect and wider purpose for choosing Mary to give birth to Jesus. A purpose that made what seems to be an unconventional story, the greatest of love stories.
A conventional love story
The film, The Vow (2012), is a love story that surprisingly draws comparisons to the Christmas message. The romantic drama, starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, follows a husband's quest to make his wife fall in love with him after she is involved in a car accident. Tatum slowly realises that you can't push your love onto someone who doesn't know you. He learns that the less pressured someone feels by you, the more likely they will choose to love you back.
Jesus didn't descend from the sky and he wasn't born to a royal family. It would have been convenient if he had been as people would have been more inclined to love him, due to his royal status. But God never pressured us to love him back. God chose to come back into the world in the most unlikely of situations, as a baby born to a young virgin. God conveniently chose Mary, her love social status and young age, to illuminate his unpressured love for all of us. He literally stepped down to our level and was willing to go the hard yards to earn our love.
The nativity story isn't one that has ever featured in glossy magazines or has had a record-breaking number of tweets. It isn't glamorous or predictable, because that is how God wants his love to look like. God's love is real, limitless, not forced and obtainable whether royalty or not.
Elesha Edmonds is the proud owner of a twelve-year-old pet fish, a coffee infatuation and three quarters of a Communications degree. She uses writing as a method to tame her overactive imagination and is ironically studying to be a journalist.
Elesha Edmonds' previous articles may be viewed at www.pressserviceinternational.org/elesha-edmonds.html