The Women who Raised Jesus 1: Mary

Our scientific worldview makes it difficult for some people to get to the truth that lies behind the stories we tell at Christmas.  Angels and virgin births, travelling stars and messages in dreams all seem a bit much.  Let’s not ask these stories to be scientifically factual accounts. We will never know what the historical facts of Jesus’ birth were. (Bethlehem didn’t have video surveillance.)  The gospel writers of Luke and Matthew give us two options that we tend to merge into one. If we let these stories be stories, we might find the truth that the authors intended to share.  I invite you to set aside any skepticism and enter into the stories of the women who show up as characters in the Luke’s version of Jesus’ birth.   

Why did God choose to come to earth as a baby?  Wasn’t it a bit risky to depend on a human mother? We can see that Jesus had a large share of God’s divinity in him, but as a baby he still needed, as we all do, someone to raise him.  A young girl named Mary was the chosen one. 

According to Luke, Mary was a young girl engaged to be married whose life was turned upside down by an angel.  Luke 1:26-38  The visit left her perplexed and pondering.  “So how am I going to have a baby when I haven’t had sex?” “Nothing is impossible with God,” Mary reasoned and she responded, “O.K.  Bring on God’s Son.”  I doubt Mary knew what she was getting into. No new mother really does.   I think she might have been surprised when she figured out that she really was pregnant, that it wasn’t all a strange dream.  I can’t imagine that her pregnancy was easy for her, physically or socially.  Angels, messengers or visions from God are ethereal and complicated.  I am sure there were days when she thought, if this is what God does to the favoured ones, I’d hate to be on God’s bad side. Mary persevered and became the mother of Jesus., trusting in God's promise to get her through whatever might come her way.   

Does God have a message for you?  Do you consider yourself one of God’s favoured ones?  What might happen if you said, “Here I am, the servant of God, let it be.  I’ll do whatever you ask.”  This advent season, the four weeks leading up to Christmas, is a good time for us to do some pondering.  What is God asking of you, O favoured one? 

The Annunciation by Rossetti