Category: Advent 2012 – Mary

Advent is traditionally a time for fasting and restraint, but in our world, with all the Christmas treats around during this season, it is easy to add on pounds. Those candies and cookies magically turn into fat all on their own. Without any effort on my part, my body automatically processes the carbohydrates and fats and assigns them a place on my hips!

Is the development of an infant within the womb any less amazing? Without any effort of the mother’s part, the growing child develops arms and legs, tiny fingers and toes. The mother does not have to remind the child, “Let’s work on developing lungs today. Oh, don’t forget ears too. And keep that heart beating!” All these elements happen automatically within the womb, unseen by human eyes.

If Mary had been aware of fetal development, she would have been awed, but even without that knowledge she was…amazed.

Though unable to peer into the confines of the womb, Mary had already seen more than enough to amaze her. An angel had appeared in front of her, her husband Joseph accepted her account about her pregnancy, her elderly cousin had just given birth to a baby, Zecharias could speak again. As she pondered each of these miracles, Mary’s heart pounded with excitement. God was at work!

When is the last time you reminded your own heart to keep beating or you urged your lungs to take a breath? Take a moment and look down at your hands and gaze with awe at how each muscle and nerve and bone fits together to accomplish a purpose. Do you take those things for granted?  Or are you amazed?   Psalm 139:14 says, “Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous – and how well I know it!”

Our God is awe-some!

Mary experienced powerful emotions during her personal Advent, waiting for the birth of her son Jesus.  Those emotions ebbed and flowed, not necessarily following any logical order but weaving back and forth to create a beautiful fabric of their own.

In my job with Bethany Christian Services, I work with birthmoms who are making an adoption plan. Their decision to trust another family to care for their child is never easy. The birthmoms become attached to the child who has resided within their body for nine long months.

Today, for example, I participated in a placement ceremony for a two-week old baby. There were many tears. The adoptive parents wept with joy as they received a beautiful baby to raise as their own. At the same time, the birthmother cried as she handed her child into the care of the adoptive mother. Knowing she was making the best choice for her child given her own difficult circumstances did not make the action any easier for the birthmom. Her decision to go ahead with the adoption plan was an voluble expression of her enormous love for her child, her desire that her child have opportunities that she the birth mom could not provide.

Mary too became attached to the child within her womb. With each passing day, she felt increasing…love.

Before Jesus was even born, Mary loved Him. Before she ever saw his face or changed a single diaper, her heart overflowed with a desire to care for Him, to nurture Him.

Romans 5:8 tells us that “God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” Just as the child within the womb of a mother has done nothing to earn her favor, you and I did nothing to win God’s affection. As Mary fell in love with Jesus long before His birth, God too loved you and me long before we turned to Him.

You and I have not yet seen God the Father face to face, but one day each of us will.  How can we, not having seen Him, demonstrate our love for Him today?

Welcome once again to this journey back to the very first Advent season, the nine months of Mary’s pregnancy.

One of my co-workers is completing her fourth month of pregnancy. I recently asked if she had felt the baby kick yet. Since this is her first pregnancy, she wasn’t sure what that felt like but she thought maybe she had. She experienced something like butterflies moving about inside her womb, a gentle feathery sensation of movement. That private moment was one only she could feel. Her husband would have to wait for a few more weeks to pass before he could join in her excitement of feeling the baby move.

Mary, too, was only finishing her fourth month. Did Mary recognize that first feathery movement within her womb soon after she returned to Joseph in Nazareth?

When she did, Mary experienced…tenderness.

Like my co-worker, Mary had a private moment. I imagine a small smile spreading across her face as she felt that first soft flutter. It was too early for Joseph to place his calloused hand on her stomach and feel such a fine sensation. This moment was only for mother and child.

The verb “tender” refers to something that is fragile and easily crushed, like a rose petal. It is a word often used to describe God’s love for His children. Psalm 103: 13 tells us, “The LORD is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him.”

Are you feeling fragile today, about to be crushed by all the cares of this world? Pause in your worries and ask your heavenly Father to set aside a private moment for just the two of you. I know that a gentle smile will light up His face as He hears your request.

My grandson had his Christmas program for preschool last night.  He practiced his songs and danced around the living room for days, flailing his arms as he whirled hither and yon.  It took four adults to keep an eye on this ball of energy. After the program, he came home and collapsed in bed exhausted.  We adults were able to sit back and relax.

As Mary entered the fifth month of her personal Advent, her womb began to swell. Gone was the excessive yearning for sleep that accompanies the first trimester of a pregnancy.

With this being her first pregnancy, she had fewer responsibilities in the home. There were no other children to care for. She had time to ponder. After all the emotional energy poured into telling her parents and Joseph, after the physical strain of traveling to and from Judea to help Elizabeth, and after the mental exercise of studying prophecies of the Messiah with Zechariah, Mary was at last able to pause, sit down, and think about her son.

As she pondered, Mary was able to experience…peace.

Christmas is a busy season for all of us, but today consider taking time off from all your activities and remember what Jesus said in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Ponder anew all the blessings God has poured down on your life in the past year.

Our time of Advent is almost half over already. How far along was Mary now in her pregnancy? It too was almost half over.

The angel Gabriel told Mary that her relative Elizabeth was already in her sixth month when he first appeared to Mary. Assuming that Mary spent a few weeks preparing for the trip to see her relatives in Judea, and knowing that she stayed in the home of Elizabeth and Zechariah for three months, we can guess that Mary was present at the birth of baby John. And so, by the time she returned to Galilee, Mary herself was close to the end of her fourth month of pregnancy.

During the fifth month of her pregnancy, Mary, like Elizabeth before her, may have entered an extended period of seclusion. Matthew’s gospel tells us that Joseph did not have relations with Mary during this pregnancy. The purpose of seclusion, a time apart from society, was to isolate a person who was “ritually unclean.” A man was not to have sex, or any physical contact, with his wife during a ritual period of isolation, a time set aside for religious reasons rather than hygienic ones. The man would be defiled by such contact. In this case, however, Joseph was not the one who would be defiled by touching his wife. Mary was not ritually unclean: She was carrying God’s own child. On the contrary, Joseph abstained from touching his wife to avoid defiling Mary.

In her isolation, Mary felt…cherished.

Even as Mary cherished the new life within her, she rejoiced in the fact that her husband cherished her enough not to demand his rights as her husband.

In Philippians 2:20, St. Paul was in prison and unable to visit his cherished churches. He spoke of his appreciation for Timothy’s love for the church at Philippi. “I have no one likeminded with him, who will cherish a genuine care for you.” (WEY)

Whom do you cherish? A child? A Parent? A dear friend? A spiritual counselor? Why not write a note of encouragement to that person today? If you can’t write a note, say a prayer of thanks to God for that person.

Advent is a time for hope.  I trust these devotionals about events that happened two thousand years ago in the past are helping you look forward to Christ’s future return.

When Mary headed to Judea to see Elizabeth, Zechariah was also in the home. As a priest, Zechariah was familiar with the Law, but  k nowing his own son would be a forerunner for the Messiah, he spent some serious time during Elizabeth’s pregnancy boning up on all the prophecies about the Messiah. How do I know? If you look at the cross-references in your Bible margins near Zechariah’s song of praise in Luke 1, they lead you like a radioactive tracer to all the places where Zechariah spent his own devotional time during those early months. He had been studying in 1 Samuel, Isaiah, Ezekiel and Malachi. He wanted to be able to teach his son all he would need to know for his future ministry.

Thus, when Mary showed up on Zechariah’s doorstep, his excitement about the coming Messiah overflowed on to Mary. As they looked together at the scriptures and their promise of a redeemer, Mary’s heart filled with…hope.

In Luke 1:76, Zechariah sang to his infant child, “You, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most High, because you will prepare the way for the Lord. You will tell his people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins.” Mary heard his prophecy and realized that even as her elderly relative rejoiced in the future of his son’s ministry, he was also revealing her own son’s future. Her son Jesus would be, as Zechariah pointed out, the one “to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us to the path of peace.”

What hopes do you have for the new year? Psalm 33:22 reminds us, “Let your unfailing love surround us, LORD, for our hope is in you alone.”

Advent is a time of anticipation. I hope you look forward to these devotional thoughts each day.

Our 3-year-old grandson in Texas has been anticipating a visit from his grandparents. For days, our son has told Simeon, “Gramma and Grampa are coming!” Tim helped Simeon make a paper chain to count the days until our arrival. The simple task of tearing off a single paper link each day made our impending visit a bit more tangible.

For Mary, the reality of her pregnancy was hard to comprehend in those early months. Her body didn’t look any different. The baby was too small for Mary to feel a tiny kick. But when she visited Elizabeth and saw her older relative visibly pregnant and heard her talking of the baby leaping within her womb, Mary’s own pregnancy must have seemed more real.

Mary became…excited.

The reality of all that lay ahead hit home. The pregnancy within her womb was fact. She and Joseph would be raising God’s Son together. With a heart beating rapidly, Mary burst into song. In Luke 1, she sang of God’s amazing power, “filling the hungry with good things and sending the rich away empty.”

When was the last time you were excited about something about to happen? As you anticipate the arrival of Christmas, try to recapture some of the excitement of my 3-year-old grandson. We will only be visiting Simeon for a week, but Jesus is with us forever!

Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.  It was a once in a lifetime event, something for which he became world famous and has long been remembered. Few of us are destined for such fame.  We are not going to be known all over the world like Neil Armstrong.  We will lead routine lives of faithfulness in our own neighborhoods.  A thousand years from now, in this world, we will only be another name on a family genealogical record, like all those people listed in the “begats” in Genesis.

Mary was different.  The more Mary thought about the child within her and the message she heard from Gabriel, the more amazed she became that she was chosen for this task.   But in her amazement she did not become proud.

Instead Mary felt…humbled.

Shortly after Joseph told her he would not divorce her, she left town to visit her older relative Elizabeth in Judea.  The first chapter of Luke’s gospel tells us that as Mary walked into the room, the child within Elizabeth’s womb jumped.  His mother looked at this young girl and said, “You are blessed by God above all other women and your child is blessed.  What an honor this is, that the mother of my Lord should enter my home!”

In a society that respected age and gave honor to older people, people would have expected Mary to revere her elderly hostess, not the other way around.  Instead, Mary accepts the truth of Elizabeth’s tribute and reacts with humility.  She replies in awe, “How I rejoice in God my Savior!  For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and now generation after generation will call me blessed.”

Today, two thousand years later, Mary is still respected and honored as the mother of our Lord.  Not one other person in all of time has ever experienced the honor that Mary felt as she stood there in front of her cousin Elizabeth.  Eleven other men have also walked on the moon, so Neil Armstrong’s experience was did not remain unique for long, but no one else has ever carried the Son of God in a womb.

You and I might never face the temptations that international fame brings, but each of us has struggled with pride.  Today, take a look at your own life.  Take stock of your successes, small or large, and consider bringing them in humility as a tribute to God’s throne.

Advent reminds us that we need to prepare our hearts for Christmas.  I hope these daily devotionals are helping you understand a small portion of what Mary must have experienced as she carried the Christ child within her womb.

When Mary told Joseph that she was pregnant, he planned to divorce her. Mary felt overwhelmed at the thought of becoming a single parent.

But that night, when Joseph lay down to sleep, God spoke to him in a dream assuring him that this child was not the result of unfaithfulness on Mary’s part but just the reverse: Her faith-full-ness to God was the reason God chose her to parent this child.

When Joseph told Mary that he too had received a message from God and that they would still be married, Mary must have felt…relieved.

The load of responsibility that threatened to overwhelm suddenly seemed less heavy. Joseph would be at her side to help carry the load, and as her husband he would protect her.  She would not have to face societal condemnation alone.  She must have thanked God over and over that night for this special man who would help her raise this amazing child.

I too thank God for my spouse.  This week my credit card number was used fraudulently. I wouldn’t have known who to call or where to begin straightening out the account. How relieved I was as my husband Gene  handled the whole problem for me. In a matter of minutes, he canceled the old card and ordered a new one.  What a relief to have him take charge for me.

Have you ever passed through a stressful period and then found that someone was willing to come alongside you and lift a portion of your load? Take a moment today and offer a prayer of thanks to God for that person.  Even if you haven’t found that person, you are not alone. In Hebrews 13:5-6, the Lord tells us, “I will never fail you. I will never forsake you.”

You’re back! Thank you for returning to my blog for another Advent devotional. And if you are new, all the earlier devotionals are listed below.

When I worked with single moms at a pregnancy center, there was one word that described every one of them: Busy! Teen moms were trying to balance keeping up with schoolwork, caring for the baby, and holding down a part time job. The financial pressure of diapers, daycare, and doctor bills drove my girls to work hard around the clock, just to keep their heads above water. They felt the disapproval of people around them.  My clients loved their children but they felt completely overwhelmed by the heavy load of responsibility they carried.

Mary too knew what it felt to be…overwhelmed.

Mary, unsure on whether Joseph would carry through on his plan to divorce her, faced the very real possibility of being a single mom. The thought of raising any child alone is a responsibility but imagine how heavy the weight on her shoulders would be knowing that her child was the Son of God.

Growing up as a child, Jesus must have observed the stress his mother faced daily. He heard the whispers of the yentas in the small village of Nazareth. Perhaps watching how people treated his mother was one way he developed such a gentle concern for women marginalized by his society. We see in John 8 how he looked with compassion at a woman caught in adultery. When Jesus spoke, one by one the angry scribes and Pharisees walked away. At last Jesus was left alone with the woman still there at his feet. “Where are your accusers?” he asked. “Did no one condemn you?  No more do I.”

The stress his mother faced impacted Jesus in another way.  Rumors about his parentage floated around town.  The Jews questioned him, saying, “Where is your father?” in v. 19. And later in 8:41, the Jews cast slurs on his lineage, saying, “We were not born of fornication [implication: like some people standing here].” Jesus defended his lineage as coming directly from God the Father.

Are you overwhelmed by responsibilities like Mary? Are you feeling a burden of condemnation? Hold your head high today. You are a child of the King!  He longs to help you carry your load.