Ready for the Advent

I love Christmas! I love the decorations, the parties, the cute clothes, the music, the candy canes, the children mixing up lyrics to the carols, the gift-giving, the smell of gingerbread men (ahem- gingerbread people for you pc'ers out there) fresh from the oven, the innocent belief in a fat man in a red suit, the twinkling lights, and almost every other aspect of the holiday. But most of all..... I love the nativity story in it's simplest and truest form in Luke 2. I get choked up without fail when the angels tell the shepherds to, "Fear not!" and then go on to share the good tidings of great joy!

In the several years since I have had children, I find myself wondering about and lingering on the person of Mary- a young girl- burdened and blessed with an immaculate conception, faithful and frightened, as she carried and bore the Christ-Child. As a mom, I can at least identify with this young girl in a worldly sense, but I can't trully comprehend or even partly get my mind around the cross that she was called to bear as the mother of our Savior. Mary Beth Chapman (wife of Steven Curtis) wrote a Christmas letter that touched my heart. It reminds me to see past Luke 2 "all the way to Golgotha" and to cherish my children and the Savior in whose image they were created.

Here is an excerpt that I will not soon forget.

I anticipate Christmas 2008, I have many thoughts flying through my heart and head. The last several days, my mind has not been able to stop thinking about Mary, the mother of Jesus. Pregnant and scared, knowing that the baby she was carrying eventually would pay the ultimate price of His life. How would I have lived differently if I knew that my time with Maria was going to be this short? Regretfully, I would have lived much differently. I would have purposely hugged and kissed more. I would have tried to memorize and lock away in my heart certain smells and smiles. I would have colored more and worked less. I would have laughed more and fussed less. Bedtime wouldn’t have become a chore to check off the list of things to get done. Instead it would have been more of an opportunity to listen about the day and offer whatever words were needed. The swimming pool wouldn’t have been too cold to swim in. The flowers in the garden would have all been picked, and definitely more ice cream would have been consumed!

I wonder what it was like for Mary after her son’s death. I know she saw him resurrected and was certain of the fact that she would she him again, but she was still his mom. Mary found favor with God; therefore she was chosen to be Jesus’ mom. But because God favored Mary, she was also chosen to suffer. Not just at the crucifixion, but her whole life. She was chosen to carry a baby in her womb, be persecuted and give birth in a dirty stable. Most of the time at Christmas we end the story there…. in the stable, with Mary, Joseph and Jesus receiving their company. Wise men, shepherds, and angels - you get the picture in your head right? The star, the animals, the Nativity! What about the rest of it? Mary, mothering the Son of God! She was human, she had a baby, and she raised that baby with the heaviness that she was to see him suffer and thus she too would suffer. I think when Mary was hiding things in her heart; it was a lot more than the reality of whom she carried in her womb. I am certain that she was hiding away the memories of first smiles and steps, as well as the first tears and tumbles. Knowing what was to come, did Mary have the opportunity to live differently as a mom to her little boy? I believe she did. I am sure that she watched him differently, taught him differently, and prayed differently. I can only imagine the discussions that she and Joseph would have when their son wasn’t listening, how they probably begged God to let the cup pass from them, but in the end yielding up the prayer we all hesitate to pray when it comes to our children…. Your will be done. UGGHH!!!! I don’t want to. I didn’t want to on May 21st, and I still don’t want to now. Yet somehow we did, and somehow we will continue to. I am reminded more than ever this Christmas, that it doesn’t end at the Nativity in Bethlehem in a cozy manger… it is a journey all the way to the cross on the hill in Golgotha on Good Friday.