Thursday, December 08, 2011

Do You Ever Wonder?

Do you ever stop to think what life must have been like for Mary?  How it must have felt to have the angel Gabriel appear to you to tell you that YOU of all girls have been chosen to be the mother of the Son of God? Overwhelming doesn’t even begin to cover it.  Only heaven knows all the things that must have went thru her mind as she heard this news. 

Here’s what I would have been thinking:  “Huh, are you talking to me?  Are you sure about this…I mean, I'm just an ordinary girl! I’m not special enough for this?  What will Joseph say, he’ll never want me now!?  What will my friends think, I’ll be disgraced! My parents are NEVER going to believe this ‘Yeah, right Mary an angel???  Couldn’t you come up with something better than that!  We know how this works and what you’ve really been doing!’ ….just a few thoughts off the top of my head.  Completely and utterly terrified is what I would have been (oh wait, maybe that WAS me - the day the doctor said “IT’S TWINS!” …but I digress here…).

Did I mention that historians believe that Mary’s age at the time was THIRTEEN?!?!?!!?  I am sure she was scared to death…truly praying for heaven to hold her together.  But the story never says she threw a fit, screamed, cried or begged to be let off (like Moses did).  Perhaps somehow in her mind she was given the peace of God to know that if He was going to entrust her with his Son, that he would also give her the strength to bear the burden of what the future was to bring.  A lesson we can all learn from.

On that night the Angel came she may not have fully grasped what the future held, that she would nurture, love and pour life into the Savior of all mankind, that she would watch him bring light into a world that didn’t even know it needed it.  That she would suffer the indignation of those who scoffed at his claim to be the Son of God.  

I imagine that had there been such a song in her day this would have been her prayer.  Not only on the night the Angel Gabriel brought this news to her, but all thruout the days as she watched her son grow and saw the power of God upon him, and knew that his life had far greater purpose than any other life on this planet would ever have.  No matter if he was Jesus, he was still her son and as a mother I cannot imagine her grief as she saw him rejected and suffer great pain and die by the hands of those he came to save.  I am sure her prayer that day was the same as the night she heard the news she was carrying the Son of God.  “Hold me together.”

Amy Grant and I go way back…like babies and bottles kind of way back.  She’s been a favorite artist of mine literally since grade school.  I can sing nearly every song she has ever recorded by heart.  From the day this Christmas album came out I have always loved this song.  I sang it every year at Christmas time in church growing up, and tonight it is the topic of this post.  I am sure you have heard it, but here it is, my favorite song by one of my favorite artists.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RVTZDgcpqM&feature=g-vrec

2 comments:

Kristen said...

Love everything about this post... From the way you ushered me into the heart of Mary, to the beautiful song that is now playing in my head! :) Thank you!

Kristen said...

Love everything about this post... From the way you ushered me into the heart of Mary, to the beautiful song that is now playing in my head! :) Thank you!