Listen – a verb. Give one’s attention to a sound.
How many of you are driving around town with the same Christmas Carols playing over and over again? I know I am and I recently realized I was hearing them but I wasn’t listening to them. The song “Mary did you know?” came on – one of my favorites – and the line that says “Mary did you know that when you kiss your little baby, you have kissed the face of God?” I have to tell you, I LISTENED to that line for the very first time. The realization of Mary kissing the face of God overwhelmed me. I’m living for the moment when I get to meet God face to face. Mary got to snuggle and kiss Him! As a mother, I kissed and loved on my girls all the time, I thanked God for the miracle of those kids, but can you even comprehend what it would have been like to mother (verb) God?
We’ve all heard the Christmas story a million times in our life but, as a mother, I don’t think I’ve really honestly thought about what exactly Mary went through. I don’t know about you, but my girls were far from perfect. Each day was a new challenge of how to discipline yet let them keep their fiery spirits. Can you imagine not having to discipline? Can you imagine raising a perfect child?
Along the way, there are many lessons that I’ve had to teach my kids and honestly, there are many lessons that I’ve learned from them. Have you ever thought, what exactly did Mary teach Jesus? I feel in my heart that God allowed her to fully embrace motherhood. There were still His first steps, His first words, His first hugs. How wonderfully special this time must have been!
I remember when the realization hit that I was bringing a new life into the world and honestly it scared me a bit. This was going to be hard – kids are hard. And as easy as you may think it would be to be a parent to a perfect being, you have to realize the incredible responsibility that came with raising the King. Did she really feel blessed or was she totally terrified, too? We can only imagine the great faith Mary had to #1 be chosen for this task and #2 to accept that God would be there to guide her through this task.
Lastly, how very horrible it would have been to be Mary watching your perfect Son, the one you knew to be God, die. He died a death he didn’t deserve in front of people He came to save. Do you think she sat at the foot of that cross and remembered the manger, remembered all his firsts, remembered how He honored her, a human, even though He was God?
At this time as we celebrate the birth of this perfect child, let us remember why He came and what He came for. His beginning was a holy, precious time but oh the power of the cross. He was born just to die, giving us the most generous gift of all – eternal life.
Carol