It is hard to believe that we are almost in October. The changing leaves, the crisp fall air, apple cider, and the smell of a good, seasonal home-cooked meal are enough to fill anyone with joy! However, according to retailers, it isn’t too early to start thinking about the most wonderful holiday of all – Christmas.
As I write this blog, we are roughly three months away from the day set aside to celebrate Christ’s birth. But as someone who is also trekking through her third trimester of pregnancy, I can’t help but think about Mary and her last days carrying her sweet baby to term.
Pregnancy is a beautifully hard thing. It is taxing on the body, the mind, and, for sure, the sleep cycle. And even though the excitement of a new baby arriving makes the nine month wait a little bit easier to process, some days, it is easy to want to do nothing but lay in bed and sleep.
But something tells me this wasn’t the case for Mary.
When Gabriel, the angel, appeared to her and told her she had been chosen to carry God’s only Son, she asked one question: “How can this be?”
To which, Gabriel responded:
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).
Following the angel’s explanation, she didn’t run to her doctor and say, “Excuse me, how will this work?” “Is it recommended at my age?” “Can you give me something to help with my morning sickness?”
Because by physical and cultural odds, it was not meant to be.
At the time, Mary was just a girl with plans to marry her soon-to-be husband, with whom she hadn’t been intimate. There were no plans for a nursery, but Mary was willing and ready to obey the most high God. He had chosen her.
There were risks. But to the angel’s request, she responded by saying:
“Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her (Luke 1:38).
Then, it came time for her last days of pregnancy.
As she reached the final home stretch, she was forced to ride with her now-husband to Bethlehem. Her body was stretching, changing, hurting, and uncomfortable. At this point, when I imagined she wanted to just lay at home and rest, she had to travel on a long journey via donkey.
Yet, if she ever complained or regretted her initial decision to obey, the Bible doesn’t record it.
Mary knew the Lord had specifically chosen her for the task at hand, and she chose to serve Him above all else. She didn’t accept the challenge of carrying the world’s Savior and whine when things got difficult. Instead, she continued to exalt the Lord.
Just like Mary, we can have the same response when He asks us to trust and follow Him.
As we inch closer to the Christmas season, I hope you’ll join me in learning this lesson in obedience from a mom who, by saying “yes,” changed the world forever.
And Mary said: “My soul exalts the Lord,
And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
“For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave;
For behold, from this time on all generations will count me blessed (Luke 1:46-48).
