Mary Did You Know?
Helen Francis
I don't know if you've heard the beautiful song ‘Mary did you know’?
It's often played at this time of year and is one of my favourites, not just because the melody is so haunting, but because I find the words of the song very thought-provoking. Just how much did Mary know?
According to many different sources, Mary is judged to have been about 14 when the angel Gabriel burst into her life with the bombshell that she had been chosen by God to bear a child who would be son of the Most High, a King whose kingdom would never end (Luke 1:31-33) - by implication the longed for Messiah!
I often feel frozen in that moment when I think about it. How much biblical teaching had been absorbed during her fourteen years? How much did she know about prophecy? Did she really grasp what she was agreeing to when she accepted this calling?
Then on the practical side; how much experience of birth and babies did she have? Living in a close-knit community she probably would have been helping with babies. She may have witnessed relative's births and, as she was already betrothed, no doubt her mother would be preparing her for her role as wife and all that entailed. But was that enough to prepare her for what was ahead? What I am most in awe of is the faith she must have had as she progressed along this journey.
She trusted that she was going to be pregnant, despite being a virgin (with all the ridicule that might incur). She trusted that the child she was carrying was who the angel said he would be. Her expressive worship in Luke 1:46-55 shows us that. She trusted that it was ok to travel away from family & community in late pregnancy to go with the Joseph to Bethlehem.
And there, amongst the animals, she gave birth. We get no hint of whether she had female support or not. Culturally it's extremely unlikely that Joseph would have been present. The best guess would be that, as it was his hometown, some of Mary's in-laws might have helped her.
Then amidst all the weariness of caring for a newborn, and the emotional and physical adjustments needed as a first time mum, strange men turn up uninvited! Shepherds! Full of excitement and wanting to see her baby. And all the bible records of Mary at the time was that she listened to what they said and treasured all these things in her heart (Luke 2:15-20).
It seems later visits from foreign dignitaries bringing gifts, and pronouncements by ancient prophets at the temple, confirm that the baby is as special as Mary was told, despite the lowly circumstances of the situation she finds herself in.
Yet things continue to go from bad to worse, when Joseph is warned of death threats towards the baby and in the middle of the night they are forced to flee in exile to another country.
Did she still trust that she had 'found favour with God' and that her baby was a King?
Finally as things settled into normality, with all the usual mundanities of raising a child: feeding, bathing, potty training and then having more children, musn't it all have begun to feel like she'd dreamt it? Or were the words and events treasured up in her heart enough to keep her faith strong, despite everything around her looking very un-royal? Were they still enough, years on, in the face of all evidence to the contrary as she watched her Mighty Prince mocked and crucified to death? Yes! She is still there in Acts 1:14.
As Hebrews 11:1 says:
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
The things Mary had seen & heard, that she treasured in her heart, kept her faith strong in the face of all the evidence to the contrary.
Christmas is a good time to dwell on the treasures in our hearts that keep our faith strong, maybe sharing them with each other for encouragement or just holding them to us in the face of opposition and difficulty.
