A Mary Christmas

Ask any parent about the birth of their child and they will typically light up with joy to tell you the story. I have heard many of these stories. Some are told with the drama of close calls, and heroic efforts. Others are told with a preface, "Things were different back then..." Still others are told with a flare of serendipity. While all of these stories are uniquely special, they all have a couple of things in common as well. First, they are all thought of with a sense of miraculous wonder. Second, they are all remembered and retold with vivid detail. And third, the mother's emotions are always a roller coaster of highs and lows, fear faith—always ending in Joy!

There's one particular mother whose birth story I would love to hear her tell...Mary, the mother of our Lord, Jesus.

We can only imagine her story... But, imagination is a big part of the Christmas experience. The Christmas story is quite essentially a birth story.

From Luke's gospel we can use a little imagination and Mary’s story emerges.

First of all, just like any other birth story--Luke retells the birth of Jesus with a sense of miraculous wonder. An angel visits Mary to announce to her that she will conceive and bear a son, and he will be the Son of God, the long awaited Messiah.

Second, and also just like other birth stories, the birth of Jesus is told with vivid detail. We hear about the politics of the day, the details of the journey to Bethlehem, the crowded scene when they got there, the difficulty that Mary and Joseph had finding a place to stay, and how one innkeeper offered them his stable. Mary delivers the baby, and we are told even more details. The baby is wrapped in swaddling cloths, and they laid him in a manger. With great detail Luke tells of the birth of Jesus, just like any other birth story, and we can imagine Mary sitting with us over a cup of coffee while she tells it to us exactly the same way, with every detail.

The only thing missing from Scripture's telling of the story is the third thing that all birth stories have in common--the roller coaster of emotions---the highs and lows—the fear and faith. This is left wholly to our imagination. But, you know...Sometimes the best things we have to say are said best when we say nothing at all. Mary's emotions, how she was experiencing that night of Jesus' birth, may have been said best by the Scriptures saying nothing at all. This gives us the opportunity to put ourselves in her shoes, and relive it with her. And, it also gives Mary the opportunity to identify with all of us---not just mothers, but fathers as well.

So, let us stretch the Scripture just enough to read between the lines and imagine for a moment what Mary might have been going through that night. She was a young girl, full-term pregnant, in a foreign town surrounded by strangers--all except Joseph and the donkey that carried her. She was about to give birth in a stable, where the stench in the air, the mess all around. Let's imagine for a moment...what Mary, the girl who was about to bear the Son of God into the world was feeling?

I imagine it something like this...

[Megan Pyle sings Breath of Heaven (Mary's Song) by Amy Grant]

This song gets us into the story of Mary in a way that is very real for all of us. A girl whose life hangs in the balance between God’s plan for all of us and her own plan for herself. Mary's story is an inspiration for all of us. In the stillness of that very first Silent Night, it is no stretch of the imagination to think of Mary teetering in that place between fear and faith—that place we all know very well. And in that moment, she was faithful.

You might say the first Christmas miracle wasn't the child born to Mary, but that Mary was willing and remained faithful to God.

And so it is with us.

When our lives hang in that balance between God's plan for us and our plan for ourselves, we can remember Mary and her inspiring story.

Mary's Christmas miracle is for us as well.

We can remain faithful.
We can trust in God, because of the Breath of Heaven

Prayer
Breath of heaven, hold us together. Be forever with us. Amen!