Margaret in Minnesota quotes Caryll Houselander:
In Caryll Houselander’s Wood of the Cradle, Wood of the Cross, she explains (with tremendous insight for a woman who herself never bore children) that “there is nothing more mysterious than infancy, nothing so small and yet so imperious. The infancy of Christ has opened a way to us by which we can surrender self to Him absolutely, without putting too much pressure on our weak human nature.
“Before a child is born,” she continues, “The question which everyone asks is ‘What can I give him?’ When he is born, he rejects every gift that is not the gift of self.”
Emphasis mine: A reflection on human nature, and the nature of Divine nature taking on human nature, all at once. Isn't it lovely?
I'd add one more thing: "Everyone" may ask "What can I give him?" before a child is born. The mother already knows the giving of the gift of self, long before birth.
bearing blog 