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Mary's Story

I would think that right about now, Mary would have been really getting nervous, although I know that Christmas wasn’t really the day that Jesus was born that it is the day that we celebrate, just think…

She was getting nervous, she was young, had never been with a man and had taken on a huge responsibility.  Most likely, she was a young teen.  She had a baby in her belly that she had felt growing for the past 9 months.  She had gone through the sickness, the weirdness, the mood swings, she didn’t have many that told her what she was going to be going through since her family knew that she had gotten pregnant before she was officially married to Joseph.  She knew that Joseph had seen the angel, just like Mary had, but she was questioning. 

“What if I was wrong, what if I didn’t see the angel, how did this happen?  What if this baby is a girl, not a boy like the angel said, then what happens?  Will Joseph divorce me and leave me to raise this child on my own?  Why did I agree to this?” 

She was in her last days of pregnancy and was full term, they tell her that she has to travel to be counted.  “Travel?  Are you crazy?  I am about to hatch a kid here, I can’t be riding along on a donkey and traveling to Bethlehem.  I don’t know anyone there.  Sure, Joseph’s family lived there before, but what are we going to do there?” 

But she knew that it was the Will of God, it had been prophesied about.  “Yeah, the prophesies, those make me feel so much better.  Not only am I going to have to give birth to this kid, but I know that I am going to have to raise Him to be the Son of God, the government will be upon his shoulders.  His name will be called WONDERFUL, Counselor, Almighty God…  What if I screw up?  What if I drop him?  What if he gets sick and dies.  I have had confirmation this is so, but i still have that seed of doubt, I am so scared!”  Luke 1:46-56 

She felt Labor coming on. 

“Joseph, I think this is happening.”
“What do you mean it is happening?”
“I mean I think I am going to have a baby.”
“We have known that for a while now Mary, just sit back, let me find a place to stay.”
“No, I think that I am going to have a baby now…”
“Oh…, well that does change things doesn’t it?  Don’t have him yet, we haven’t found a place to stay.”

So Joseph runs around the town looking for a place to stay, he is getting more and more frantic as time goes on.  He looks to his wife, her brow starting to glisten with sweat from labor, he had to do something.  He was most likely thinking similar things to Mary…  “God put me in charge of this baby, but he said it was a boy, if it is a girl, did I just waste all my time with this woman?…  I am just a simple carpenter, I don’t know the word of God and the prophesies, how am I supposed to raise this child to be what God wants.  I can’t even find him a place to be born.  I can’t let this baby die….”

Finally, an innkeeper, seeing Mary in labor, offers them his manger.  The manger where she could give birth to her child.  It was not clean, far from sterile, but it was what they had.  So Joseph went in and raced around to get things ready.  Mary observed her settings, submitted herself to the fact she wasn’t going to be having a child in a room and went about making it comfortable for her.  She had her “hospital bag” packed, she was ready to go.  She emptied it with all the supplies between contractions.  And then it happened… 

It was far from an ideal situation, but they had an ideal baby.  Labor was terrible, it was hard, it hurt, it was messy, it was unpleasant to say the least.  After she finally was able to give birth to her child, she wrapped him in clothes and held him.  Suddenly the manger transformed.  It took on a new light.  She looked at her baby’s perfect, beautiful, face and all the trouble from the week just started to disappear.  She looked around and watched the hay turned to a comfortable place to stay, the feeding trough was JUST the right size for a new baby.  There was comfort. 

Life isn’t always what we expect it to be.  It has a way of twisting and turning and becoming something that we look at and see the negative in quite often.  As Christmas comes, lets think about how God takes a bad situation and makes it beautiful.  Turn your eyes on Jesus, look at his face and you will see the beauty of the situation that you are in.  Hold his love in your arms and all the troubles that you face are small and trivial because you have a perfect and loving God that is there for you.  Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 2 1-7

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