Mary

MARY

Mother of Jesus

HER NAME MAY MEAN "Bitterness"

HER CHARACTER:

She was a virgin from a poor family in an obscure village in Galilee. Her response to Gabriel reveals a young woman of unusual faith and humility. Her unqualified yes to God's plan for her life entailed great personal risk and suffering. She must have endured seasons of confusion, fear, and darkness as the events of her life unfolded. She is honored, not only as the mother of Jesus, but as his first disciple.

HER SORROW:

To see the son she loved shamed and tortured, left to die like the worst kind of criminal.

HER JOY:

To see her child raised from the dead; to have received the Holy Spirit along with Christ's other disciples. 

KEY SCRIPTURES:

Matthew 1:18-25; 2; Luke 1:26-80; 2:1-52; John 19:25-27

HER LIFE AND TIMES

Mary cowered in fear when the angel Gabriel appeared to her - not an uncommon reaction. Most often in Scripture, when an angel appeared to a human being, the reaction was one of fright. While we're not told exactly what angels look like or how they appear, one description in Matthew's gospel says the angel's "appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow" (Matthew 28:3). Certainly it's obvious from the reactions of those who saw them that angels are supernatural beings and therefore frightening. 

Angels played an important role in the life of Jesus. After first appearing to Zechariah, Mary, and Joseph, angels announced Jesus' birth to the shepherds (Luke 2:9). Angels came and ministered to Jesus after he was tempted in the desert (Matthew 4:11) and when he was in the garden just before his crucifixion (Luke 22:43). A violent earthquake accompanied the angel that came to earth and rolled back the stone over Jesus' tomb (Matthew 28:2). When Jesus ascended into heaven, two angels, "men dressed in white" (Acts 1:10) told the disciples he would be coming back in the same way. 

In the book of Revelation, John describes a glorious scene: "Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders. In a loud voice they sang: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!'" (Revelation 5:11-12).

Imagine the sight: hundreds of thousands of beings - purest white, like lightning - all moving in concert around God's throne. Listen: Can you imagine their loud, supernatural voices praising Jesus? _Worthy is the Lamb!_ Then "every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all that is in them" (Revelation 5:13) will join in with them, singing the same song of praise. What a sight! What a sound! Mary will be there praising her son. Will you be there praising your Savior?

HER PROMISE

When God says nothing is impossible (Luke 1:37), he means it. He is all-powerful, omnipotent, the Savior of the world. No matter what he has promised, no matter how hard or impossible that promise to fulfill, he can and will do it.

Promises in Scripture

For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over.... He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God.

-JOSHUA 4:23-24

With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

-MATTHEW 19:26

For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.

-1 CORINTHIANS 1:25

HER LEGACY OF PRAYER

Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.

-LUKE 1:28

REFLECT ON:

Luke 1:26-38

PRAISE GOD:

That nothing is impossible with him. 

OFFER THANKS:

That a woman's body became the dwelling place of divinity. 

CONFESS:

Any tendency to devalue yourself as a woman 

ASK GOD:

To make you a woman, like Mary, who brings Jesus into the world by expressing his character, power, forgiveness, and grace.

Lift Your Heart

Choose one episode in the life of Mary - her encounter with Gabriel, the birth of her child, the scene with the shepherds, the presentation in the temple, the escape to Egypt, her son's agony on the cross, or her presence with the disciples in the upper room. Imagine yourself in her place. What are your struggles, your joys? What thoughts run through your mind? Does anything or anyone take you by surprise?

Ask the Holy Spirit to guide your reflections, to help you imagine the sounds, sights, and smells that will bring each scene to life. Let the Scriptures feed your soul with a deeper understanding of God's intention for your life. Pray for the grace to be like the woman who said: "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said"

My soul is full of you, my God, and I cannot hold back my gladness. Everyone who sees me will call me blessed because you have noticed me. You saw my lowliness and my need and filled my emptiness with your presence. Form your likeness in me so that, like Mary, I can bring you into a world that desperately needs your love. In the name of Mary's son I pray, Amen.