Merry Christmas! – Not so Merry for Mary

Once again Christmas is upon us and I would love to share in sober reflections on the actual reason for the season as we look to relive some of the moments heralding the coming of our Lord and Savior, Jesus as a man on earth. 

The Christmas trees, ribbons, glistening lights, Santa Claus, Reindeer, Christmas Turkey or veggies, winter snow, and the likes are lovely items to think about during the Christmas season adding flavor to the physical celebrations. However, while we enjoy the season, as Believers we must never lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas.

A long time ago in Nazareth according to Luke 1:26-38, God sent the well-known Angel Gabriel with a destiny-disrupting and potentially fatal message to an unassuming young virgin girl called Mary. She did not seem to receive the message with any iota of merriment because, although she had been praying just like other Jews for the coming of the Messiah, she would not think herself to be the conduit for such divine purpose. Besides, she came from an obscure family, poor and relatively unknown in Israel, so how could she be the bearer of such a heaven-and-earth-changing plan of God?

On the other hand, here she was, busy (with butterflies in the stomach) planning her wedding to Mr. Joseph – the fine gentleman from the tribe of Judah, perhaps also thinking of the honeymoon spots after the wedding. Standing here whowith her was this Angelic being called Gabriel who greeted her as “highly favored one” to which she wondered, troubled in her heart – “What manner of greeting is this?”

How could you crash my wedding party and still say I am highly favoured ?! How could you sentence me to death by informing me I will be pregnant outside wedlock,( which meant being stoned to death for infidelity in those days) ? How could you interrupt my whole life with your plan and still say I am “highly favoured”? How?! How?! How can these things be?!… I could try to imagine Mary’s thoughts. 

This was not Merry Christmas news to this innocent maiden. But then the Angels goes ahead to explain further that this will happen by the power of the Highest that will overshadow her to conceive and give birth to the Son of God and in verse 37, ends by telling her, “For with God, nothing shall be impossible”, Hallelujah! However, I am more touched by Mary’s reckless abandonment of her own plans for God’s ultimate will when Mary finally says it all in one statement, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word”. Unlike her cousin’s husband, Zacharias who doubted and became dumb, she did not argue with God’s purpose but submitted herself to it in total surrender.

Mary is my heroine, seeing the way she handled a life-changing call of God in her life not minding the very hard conflicts she would face explaining the pregnancy to her fiancé, risking ridicule and death but she abandoned it to God who did not fail her.

This still applies to us today in the expansion of God’s kingdom. We find ourselves hoping and praying for God’s salvation to spread through the world but we somehow do not think ourselves big enough to be used by God to fulfill the prophecies of the scriptures regarding the world today. We many times think of the other person – perhaps that big televangelist, Pastor, or that rich or popular person, as the one God has ordained to do those big things for His Kingdom. But this story tells us that God is a specialist in raising the poor and lowly hearted person from obscurity to fulfill his biggest purpose on earth – to spread His Kingdom in our world. 

Has God spoken something to or planted an idea in your heart for His Kingdom, its time to let go of the doubt and say like Mary, “Be it unto to me according to your word” Stop the chase and be caught in your divine purpose this Christmas and you will truly have a Merry Christmas like Mary eventually did for us all.

Merry Christmas!