Friday, December 26, 2008

Reflection on Luke 2:1-20

Mary pondered.

Here we have a scene where great and glorious things are taking place: Mary has been told that she is carrying God’s own Son, the Messiah, she and Joseph endure a long trip to Bethlehem, they search and find no place to stay but a stable, shepherds are visited by an angel and told to go see the child laying in a manger, they gather in the stable exclaiming with joy the things that are taking place, and with all of this great and glorious chaos of strange, rejoicing people and dirt, and barn animal smells, and cooing young child all swirling around her; Mary takes a breath and ponders.

What do you ponder on when you’ve just given birth to God’s son? What do you ponder when God has literally dwelled within you for nine months, and now stares at you, needing you to feed him, needing you to raise him. I guess you probably ponder how you are to raise him.

What would happen if you were to run dry of milk and could not feed him? What is the penalty for killing God’s son? What are you going to do when he brakes a plate on purpose, smiles at you while you approach in anger, and then snaps his fingers to put it right back together? Do you get after him? Did he do anything wrong? What do you say to him when as a teen he tells Joseph to his face, “You are not my father! I listen to only my father!” Do you send him to his room without food? Again, should you starve the son of God?

It is a lot to take in. It is a lot to think about. It is a lot to ponder for a fourteen year old girl who has never raised a child before and now is expected to raise the Son of God. Does the world come to an end just because you forget to clean your hands before feeding the Christ child and something tragic happens?

This night, while everyone else loudly dances around and rejoices and a Shepherd pretends to ride the goat across from the manger, the sound quickly falls away to silence as Mary ponders.

Who is she that God would choose her for such a task? She is young. She is inexperienced. To the outside world she appears to have slept around. She stares at her young hands and sees just how small her palms and fingers are. Their size betray her. They hide a secret greatness.

Great people are given great tasks by God. The surprising thing is that most people do not know that they are great. Most people do not know they have been chosen by God. Most people do not realize that the smile and handshake that they gave a stranger in K-Mart actually caused the stranger to go home and spend a great, loving day with their family, even though they lack the money this year to create a lavish holiday.

Most people do not realize that forgiving someone for saying something stupid about you may have little effect on your own life, you have big shoulders after-all, but it just may cause that person to feel good and decent once again.

Most people do not realize that God has made them great. Most people do not realize that God has chosen them. But, God has. God has chosen us to be his people.

As she sat there, Mary pondered on this wonderful truth just as she did nine months before when the angel told her that she would bear a Son. God has chosen her, a lowly one, a poor one, to be a servant through whom God might do great things. She did nothing to earn this privilege. God just chose to come to her in a very real way. God chose to dwell inside of her. God chose her to share God's love with all the world.

And, God also chooses to come to you. Christ chooses to dwell inside you in a very real way; with his very real love, his very real forgiveness, and his very real peace. The Christ child has chosen to dwell in you. This is something to ponder.


All Scripture quotes are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyrighted, 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and is used by permission. All rights reserved.

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