Advent Day 18
Luke 2:19 ESV
Luke 1:26-38 (the Angel Gabriel appeared to Mary)
Luke 1:36-37 ESV
Luke 1:32-33 ESV
There’s nothing quite like being a Mother.
It’s an enigma.
Don’t get me wrong, there’s also nothing quite like being a father, but it’s different. It’s not better…just different.
From the time I first knew I was a mother, it seemed like everything changed. The microscopic person growing inside me changed my life.
I remember being amazed by who my oldest child (and only girl) was and IS. In many ways she’s nothing like me. She possesses many qualities I do not have.
One summer when my youngest son was young enough to still be in elementary school someone threw a rock at him and hit him square on top of the head. By the time he was in the house blood was everywhere from the top of his head all the way down the sides of his face.
My daughter was with me when he came running in the house. I was very scared. I was so scared that I was shaking. I panicked.
My daughter is seven years older than her youngest brother and she immediately took over. She grabbed a towel, found the open wound, and put pressure on top of his head. She told me to get the keys to the car so we could take him to the doctor. She took her brother to the car and tightly held the towel on the wound while I drove.
At that time we lived in a small town in Northeast Missouri. I drove to the doctor’s office which was about two miles away. When we got there she jumped out with her brother and she kept putting pressure on the towel. I parked the car.
Once inside she told the nurse someone threw a rock at him and she told her I was parking the car. Thankfully, the nurse knew her and she checked us in. She called for the doctor and he came running.
They cleaned the wound and the doctor told me it was a good think we put pressure on the wound. I told him my daughter somehow knew exactly what to do.
It turned out that the wound was superficial and the cut was not deep. The nurse cleaned it up and dressed it.
I’m not absolutely sure why I panicked, but all I can remember is that my boy was hurt. When I saw the blood I hurt for him.
All I remember that there was a lot of blood on his face…
I was sure that meant the cut was significant.
I also realized that day that my daughter was the eighth wonder of the world. In a crisis, she jumped into action.
That wasn’t the only time she helped in a time of crisis. Being the oldest and only girl with three younger brothers meant she had many opportunities to be a great help!
I know it’s a strange story but when I read Luke 2:19 I remembered my youngest son with blood streaming down his face. I also remember my daughter who knew exactly what to do.
Luke 2:19 tells us, “But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.”
Part of the wonder of the Christmas story is that Mary was probably younger than I was when I became a Mother. My daughter was born when I was 23 years old.
She would have probably been about the same age as my daughter the day the accident happened. Yet, Mary knew exactly what to do. She knew how to protect her young son, Jesus. She knew because she listened.
She REALLY listened.
Even though Mary was young, she listened to the Angel Gabriel when the Angel appeared to her. We know from Luke 1:26-38 that Mary did not doubt the words of the Angel.
Mary went to visit her older cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1:36) who was also expecting a child. Elizabeth was much older and it was said she was barren before she miraculously became a Mother. Elizabeth was the Mother of John, called the Baptizer.
We know from Luke 1:36-37 when Mary was told to visit Elizabeth she was told, “And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Second, Mary believed.
Mary did not doubt what the Angel told her.
Even when the Angel told her things about her son that had were probably puzzling, she received the words the Angel spoke to her when she was told, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:32-33).
In that moment when the Angel spoke those words to young Mary, she believed what she was told and she held them in her heart.
The words could not have been fully understood until her boy had accomplished everything God the Father intended.
Until then, Mary held the words the Angel told her in her heart.
She believed but she pondered the words.
Spiritual Practice: Listen and Believe
Ask God what word He has for you. Listen and Believe.
In God, Deborah
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