by Jo Wardhaugh Doyle                                                    Ireland                                   24.12.2025

The starry night of the Incarnation, the unseen miracle, the 25th of December, the birth of Jesus, and the day Santa arrives, is full of noise, light, song, cheer, food, celebration of family and friends; But back in the day it happened with no fanfare or noise. Incarnation, like Resurrection happened in darkness.

So, I have to ask the question. Why is the darkness so important before light can be revealed.

I do love the story of the birth of Christ in Luke’s gospel. It was all so ordinary. People moving to their home constituency for the census, no room for outsiders, Joseph and Mary just unknown unseen people, not exceptional or remembered; but Mary knew something had happened nine months previous when she had said Yes, her Fiat. She had been touched. There was no certitude or intellectual discussion. She had just said yes, with no verification of what that meant. She held these words that had been spoken to her in her heart for the rest of her life, letting them unfold into a living light of love and loss, joy, and grief. She let these words unfold into love of her son. Born in darkness, with joy, born like an amazing miracle. She looked and gazed upon him like any mother wrapped in silence. This child, this cherished child was hers. Her life changed forever with a deep awning of love. She pondered all these things in her heart and wondered did every mother feel this way?
It was a cold night, but the stars were twinkling so brightly it did look like the gods were talking to each other across the heavens; But all Mary and Joseph saw were shepherds coming closer to them, they had shepherded their sheep with them, five Shepherds in all, old and young, who wondered had their water being changed to wine. They wondered had they heard right. They wondered where they drunk. So, they wandered into town, with no certitude either. What on earth would they find with their sheep on that starry night, where they mad; When they fell upon the scene, the older man with the younger woman suckling her child, their donkey and a stray cow curious, like the shepherds as to what was going on. They were told to see their Saviour, a newborn helpless child, with poverty-stricken parents who had no place to stay. A Saviour?

But the stars had twinkled, and that voice had been so convincing with its unconvincing message. A Saviour!
Joseph welcomed them in, bewildered one and all. All of them had been touched with a knowing. It was like a secret knowing, given in darkness to them. The world had been stirring badly; these were dark times. But on this starry night, these eight people knew something unexplainable.

Do you remember the first time you saw a new life being born into this world?
I do. I was a student midwife at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital Drogheda.
It had been a long, hard labour for the mother, and the pain of the last few pushes, well, everyone’s blood pressure rose! But that moment when the head crowned, the shoulders turned, and this amazing life fell out of the womb.
There it is. There is the light. The new life.
The cry. The declaration I am here! I have arrived.

On my first delivery, I had unpreventable tears roll from my eyes. The mother looked, wondering was everything OK. And I laughed and said everything was perfect. It is hard not to cry at watching this in front of your eyes. From the darkness of the womb to the light of new life.
Is this incarnation? The unremarkable miracle of life; And like the shepherds who went to tell the good news to all around them, we all call on our mobiles to everyone that we know and cry, do not worry anymore, the child is born, everyone is safe, everyone is healthy. All is well. The light is born and hope continues.

And the woman wraps herself in silence, pondering all of these things in her heart.