Mary, Mother of Jesus

Day 1
Mary, her name may mean "bitterness"

Mary 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; John 19:25-27

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 Magi's visit, the escape to Egypt, her son's agony on the cross, or her presence with the disciples in the Upper Room. Image 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."

Day 2

A cool breeze teased at her skirts as she balanced the jug on her head, making her way toward the well. A stranger, she noticed, was approaching from the opposite direction. Even in the dusky light, his clothes shone, as though bleached bright by the strongest of fuller's soap.
"Greetings" he shouted, "you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you."
No Nazarene, she was sure, would ever dare greet a maiden like that. But with each step his words grew bolder, not softer, rushing toward her like water plunging over a cliff.
"Do not be afraid, Mary....
you have found favor with God....
you will give birth to a son....
He will be called the Son of the Most High....
the Holy Spirit will come upon you....
Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age."
Wave after wave broke over her as she listened to the angel's words--first confusion and fear, then awe and gratitude, and finally a rush of joy and peace. Her whole being drenched in light. Then she heard words, this time cascading from her lips, not his:
"I am the Lord's servant.
May it be to me as you have said."
Though the angel departed, Mary's peace remained. The Most High had visited the lowliest of his servants and spoken the promise every Jewish women longed to hear: "You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."
The moon hung like a smile in the night sky as she lifted the brimming buckets and began walking across the fields. As the water swayed and splashed to the rhythm of her movements, she realized that she, too, felt full and satisfied--as though she had just finished a favorite meal. Questions, she knew, would come with the morning. For now, it was enough to look up at the stars and know that God was at work shaping her future.

Heavenly Father, Today I thank you for the beauty of your calling on Mary's life. I also thank you and poor blessings on the women I know who are truly your servant's. Lord, Thank you for the women who change the world because they choose to follow Your will. God bless the women who bring up their children in your ways, bless those that care for orphan's and widows, bless the women that support their husbands, bless the women that feed the hungry and clothe the poor. Bless the women that call me friend, because they are my sisters in Your great Kingdom.

Day 3

Today, I want to share with you from another book. It is one of my favorite descriptions of the birth of Christ from Mary's perspective. Please take the time to read this, it will be well worth your time.

From: Jesus the One and Only by Beth Moore pg. 33-36

Her body lay sapped of strength, her eyes were heavily closed, but her mind refused to give way to rest. She ached for her mother. she wondered if she yet believed her. She heard the laboring breathing of the man sleeping a few feet from her. Only months before he was little more than a stranger to her. She knew only what she had been told and what she could read in occasional shy glances. She had been told he was a good man. Over the last few days, she found out he was far more than a good man. No man, no matter how kind, could have done what he had done. She wondered how long it had been since he'd really rested

A calf, only a few days old, awakened hungry and could not find its mother. The stir awakened the baby who also squirmed to find His mother. Scarcely before she could mover her tender from toward the manger, He began to wail! She scooped Him in her arms, her long hair draping His face, and she quietly slipped out of the gate. She gingerly sat down and leaned against the outside of the stable, propped the baby on her small lap, and taking a strip of linen and tying back her hair, she began to stare into His tiny face. She had not yet seen Him in the light. She had never seen the moon so bright. The night was nearly as light as the day. Only hours old, His chin quivered, not from the cold, but from the sudden exposure of birth. His eyes were shaped like almonds and were as black as the deepest well. She held Him tightly and quietly hummed a song she'd learned as a child. She had been so frightened of this moment, so sure she would not know what to do. She had never held an infant so small, and He was God, wrapped in soft, infant flesh, with bones so fragile she felt like He could break. She had pictured this moment so many times. What would the Son of the Spirit look like? she never expected Him to look so normal, so common. Must have been the part He inherited from His mother. she was so sure she'd feel terribly awkward. so afraid she'd drop Him, the Messiah, and God would be awfully sorry He had given Him to her! Instead, ever fear, every doubt, every inadequacy was momentarily caught up in the indescribable rapture of a mother's affection.

She remembered asking Elizabeth things she dared not ask her father and mother. Once when they were walking together at the end of the day, the wind blew her cousin's robes against her, and like a curious teenager, Mary tried her hardest to catch a good glimpse of Elizabeth's rounded middle. At the time she herself had no physical evidence that God's promise was true. but she had enough faith to ask endless questions. What am I to do when He comes? Her cousin's reply would remain etched upon Mary's heart long after He had saved the world. He will tell you what He needs from you. Beyond what He needs, all He wants is for you to embrace Him and talk to Him.

She looked back into His delicate face and watched Him closely as He seemed to stare deeply into the moonlit sky. Ad she began to talk. "Sweet baby boy. Do You know who Your Daddy is? Do You know why You're here? What do You see when You look out there? Can You see the stars? Do You remember their names? Do You think I'll do OK? Will You love me too?" A tear dropped from her chin to His. He yawned and made such a funny expression she grinned, wiping her face on the yellowed rags she'd draped around Him. the fussing calf had obviously found its mother. Not a sound was coming from inside the stable. The earth stilled. The infant slept. she held the babe next to her face, and for just a moment, all the world was silent to the breath of God.

She closed her eyes and listened, stealing time like a hidden metronome, as high and as wide as she dared to think, but she still could not bin to comprehend. She, a common child of the most humble means who had never read the Scriptures for herself, was embracing the incarnate Word. The fullness of the Godhead rested in her inexperienced arms, sleeping to the rhythm of her heart. This time she hummed a song she did not know, a song being sung by the choir of angels hovering over her head but hidden from her carnal senses. The deafening hallelujahs of the heavenly hosts were silent to mortal ears except through the sounds of a young woman's voice who had unknowingly given human notes to a holy score. The glory of God filled the earth. Heaven hammered a bridge, but one young woman sat completely unaware of all that swelled the atmosphere around her. The tiny baby boy had robbed her hear. "So, this is how it feels to be a mother." she mused

She crept back into the stable, wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in the manger. Just down the path, the sun peeked over the roof of an inn full of barren souls who had made Him no room.

Day 4

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" The cry pierced her like a sword driven through her chest. The earth shook violently and she fell to her knees, barely able to complete the words of the psalm for the man who hung dead on the cross:

O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, and am not silent...
but I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by men and despised by the people.
All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads...
Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you
even at my mother's breast.
From birth I was cast upon you;
from my mother's womb you have been my God...
they have pierced my hands and my feet.
I can count all my bones;
people stare and gloat over me,
They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.
But, you, O Lord, be not far off.
O my Strength, come quickly to help me....
You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
future generations will be told about the Lord.
They will proclaim his righteousness
to people yet unborn--
for he has done it.

By the time Mary opened her eyes, the setting sun had turned the city into a golden land. She smiled, wiping the tears from her winkled face. How true the angel's words had been. No woman from Eve onward had ever been blessed as she, the mother of the Messiah, had been. Yes, the past was alive inside her, but it was the future that filled her with joy. Soon, she would see her son again and this time it would be His hands that would wipe away the last of her tears.

Day 5
"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.

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 m so that, like Mary, I can bring you into a world that desperately needs your love.