As the Christmas season is here, I can’t help but think about the fact that I won’t be here next year. There are a lot of things that I won’t be able to do or to experience next year that I am used to. No Christmas tree with homemade ornaments, no Christmas dinner with my family, no Christmas Eve service at church, no Elf, no Home Alone, no little dogs with Christmas sweaters, no SNOW! (well, there’s not always snow for Christmas where I live now anyways, which I’m still not used to. I guess I can’t be too sad about that one). I feel like I am being slowly stripped of everything that I hold dear to me and I can’t do anything about it. This past Sunday I heard a sermon that put a lot of things into perspective for me.
Let’s take a look at Mary. She is the soon-to-be mother of the Messiah, in the bloodline of David, a young, teenage Jewish girl betrothed to a man named Joseph, and God chose her for reasons that we probably will never know. Before she was married, the angel Gabriel came to her and told her she was pregnant.
Now, let’s take a look at the culture of that time. If a woman was found to be adulterous in any way (which included being pregnant and unwed) she was put to death by stoning. I don’t know about anyone else, but if I were in her shoes and a man came to me, told me I was miraculously pregnant even though I was still a virgin, oh, and the baby is GOD…I probably would not believe him at all; I might just think he was a random guy who was trying to mess with me.
Mary was not put to death, but she was ridiculed, outlawed, and said to be adulterous by some people even after Jesus was crucified.
In Luke 1 she writes a song:
“My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me –
holy is His name.
His mervy extends to those who fear Him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised his ancestors.”
When we think about it, she was saying all of these things while her community was calling her adulterous and outlawing her. She was going through so much and yet she was rejoicing and taking delight in The Lord not for what He had done to her but for what He had become to her.
Coming up on next year, I know it is going to be tough, I know at times I am going to hate it, I know it’s going to be dirty, I know that right now I have no idea what’s ahead of me; and yet I will rejoice. I know I am going to miss my family so much that I don’t even want to think about it now; and yet I will rejoice. I know I am going to hate that I am not with them over the holidays; and yet I will rejoice. I know these things and yet I will rejoice because when it comes down to it, He is the only thing that matters and nothing else. He has become the One I will rejoice in.
I want to be a blessing to everyone I meet so He can become the someone to them that He is to me.
