Dear Readers, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Our family had a wonderful Christmas together. We had Christmas Eve dinner at M’s house. We were all together: my husband, our daughter & son-in-law & Baby J, our son, “M” who is our son-in-law’s mother, and his sister. Then we had dinner on Christmas Day at our house.

Last Christmas Eve, we found out the wonderful news about our daughter expecting a baby. And now this Christmas Eve, we talked about the awesome blessing and joy that four month old Baby J is bringing to our lives.

As I sat rocking my precious grandson to sleep, I thought about how over two thousand years ago Mary rocked her baby Jesus to sleep. One of my favorite Christmas songs says it this way, “Mary rocked her savior to sleep.” Mary must have had so many thoughts going through her head as she rocked her precious bundle of joy. She must have relived her encounter with the angel Gabriel who told her she would have a baby who would be the son of the Most High. She probably relived her visit with the shepherds who came and shared with her and with Joseph about the angels visit with them in the field where they were told “good news of great joy.” This young mother, Mary, had the most awesome experience that any mother could have…rocking and cuddling her precious baby who would bring good news and great joy to the whole world.