Although Easter eggs have been in the supermarkets since early January, Easter is now definitely upon us. Churches are busy planning special services and perhaps children’s clubs to mark Jesus’ death and resurrection.
It seems odd then to pause and reflect on events connected with the Christmas story – the angel Gabriel’s announcement to the Virgin Mary that she is shortly to conceive and her hasty visit to Elizabeth, herself pregnant with John the Baptist (Luke 1:26-45). Yet for churches which mark Christ’s conception, this occurs on 25 March, nine months prior to 25 December.
Christ in utero
Whether or not this features in our own church calendar, it is a potent reminder that, in the usual order of things, every child – including Jesus – spends fully three quarters of a year in utero. It also reveals the truth that the incarnation began not in Bethlehem with Christ’s birth, but in Nazareth as God became flesh in the womb of Mary, microscopic in size and wholly imperceptible to those around him for the first few months of his life.
