There’s Something About Mary

This is my piece that appeared in the Canadian Baptist Advent Reader. If you aren’t already, I would encourage you to finish your Advent season with this compilation of Advent reflections. You can access the book free and online here.

In art, Mary is usually depicted as a young beauty draped in blue. Her head is modestly bent and her glowing face holds a demure smile. We see her like this often, so we picture her as such: so serene; so blessed; so easy to brush her off as another quiet figurine in the Christmas story. God’s saccharine-sweet vessel to earth. But, what if Mary is more than the quiet saint on our stained-glass windows? What if Christ invites us to make room in our Advent preparations for his Mom?

photo used with creative-commons licence from Flickr user Andy Castro

Can you imagine the girl that the angel visited? She’s twelve years old, or maybe thirteen. She is living the life of a young Jewish girl of her time. She is pledged to be married to Joseph. And she is understandably scared out of her mind to see an other-worldly creature in front of her. As the angel speaks, she finds herself to be pregnant and understands that this will bring disgrace upon herself and Joseph.

Her world has been turned upside-down.

How often do we crumble when the ground under our feet shifts? How often do we keep ourselves up at night with fear and anxiety, wondering where to turn for deliverance? How often do we lose our patience in the face of minor trials? How often do we run ourselves ragged trying to control everything? How often do we trust ourselves too much and our God too little?

So what does Mary do? What does that scared little girl do when her world has been turned upside-down? She listens. She accepts. She consents. She makes room for God to bless her. “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Mary’s response is powerful and world-altering. She chose to listen to the words the angel spoke as he blessed her with comfort and favour (Luke 1:28). She accepted the role that God extended to her. She consented to God’s will manifesting itself in her day-to-day life, and she made space in her life – and in her womb – for God to enter.

The Christmas story is dependent on Mary’s reaction to fear and uncertainty. It is dependent on her grace under adversity. It is dependent on her labour pains. It is dependent on her dedication to mother a little boy into adulthood.

Advent calls upon real life people. It calls upon people who are scared and overwhelmed and uncertain. It calls upon us to focus on his calling and listen for God’s words of love and encouragement. It invites us to make room for God.

God doesn’t require us to prepare ourselves so that we may enter into Advent. We will never be able to prepare ourselves alone. He asks us to come as we are as He presents himself to us. He wants us to prepare room for the babe in swaddling cloths. How will you choose to react to him?

There’s something about Mary – something we shouldn’t miss as we prepare our hearts for the coming King.