A Mary Heart

Today's passage:  Luke 2:16-17
     We were given an advent calendar a couple of years ago.  In years past, I have filled it with sweets and treats.  This year I decided to do something a little different.  Behind each door I put in a slip of paper that  I've typed up a verse of the Christmas story.  And then I have included a task or a treat that would connect to that part of the story.  For example, for the verses about Mary and Joseph having to go to Bethlehem to be taxed, I gave them each a dollar explaining that whatever they bought with it, they would need to consider the tax that would be included. If they chose to use it on a vending machine, they would have to pay Mommy and Daddy the tax amount on the item.  When I typed up the verse about the shepherds telling everyone they knew, I put a gospel tract inside the doors and asked them to hand it to somebody that needed to hear about Jesus this week.  Of course there has been a little bit of grumbling that there has not been a treat behind each door, but I have explained to them that Christmas is about Christ.  All this other stuff is fun and exciting, but Christ's birth is the reason for the celebration.

Mary Kept These Things in Her Heart--Taken from Standard Bible Story Readers, Book One
By Lillie A. Faris, Illustrated by O. A. Stemler and Bess Bruce Cleaveland
The Standard Publishing Company, 1925

     As I have been reading and typing up the passage in Luke 2, something occurred to me.  After the shepherds went and told everyone they could find about the Christ child, it stands to reason that at least a few of those people might want to check out their story.  Either they didn't believe when they were told this news and continued on with their business, or they said, "I've got to go see what these guys are talking about."  This could mean only one thing.  Mary and Joseph would not have gotten any sleep that night.  They had journeyed all that day, Mary had just given birth, and from that moment on they had visitors all the night.  They didn't need a room in the inn, because they weren't going to enjoy a cozy bed anyhow.  Now, if I were Mary I would have grumbled and complained about this.  At some point in the night I would have pleaded with Joseph to turn any other visitors away because I was exhausted.  If I had been Mary, I would have been thinking, if we hadn't been stuck in this barn, I could be sleeping right now.  Instead, I have to make small talk with strangers when all I really want to do is sleep.  Maybe Mary had those thoughts, but was too gracious to utter them.  Maybe every visitor that came by, she secretly wished was the last so she could get some rest.  Somehow, I don't think so because she "pondered them in her heart".  Mary understood what it was really all about.  This was not any ordinary baby.  This was not any ordinary birth.  This was the arrival of God Himself. If Mary had any of those selfish thoughts, she was able to fling them aside because it was far more important to allow the world to see who had just made His debut on this earth.
     Physically, she would have been completely depleted.  Of course, it was God coming into the world, maybe she had the easiest labor on record.  If it was, she would be in for a real surprise when she gave birth to her future children.  Just another way for those brothers and sisters to be compared to their perfect big brother.  God knew Mary's heart.  He knew how she would handle the pressure of being ridiculed through the whole pregnancy.  He knew that she would not be thinking about herself when the time came for the baby to be born.  He knew that she had a servant's heart, that she was willing to do what was necessary to see God's plan carried out.  Many faiths give too much credence to Mary.  Some faiths don't give her enough.  This was a remarkable woman.  She really exemplifies selflessness.  The trials of scorn and scoffing when people first learned she was pregnant.  The fear of losing the man she loved, because how was he supposed to understand this?  Traveling on a donkey while probably having contractions, but being willing to finish the journey because God had a particular place in mind when His Son would be born.  She had no idea that particular place would be in a stable.  And now a sleepless night, smiling and chatting with countless people.  Maybe she yawned here and there, it could hardly be helped, but sharing her Child with the world, remembering that this was the One so many had been waiting for their entire lives.  Mary's story started long before an angel's visit.  God was working in this young lady for years before that, and she must have displayed a surrendered heart time and time again for God to select her for this special privilege.  She had no idea the full extent of what she was surrendering to, when she agreed to God's plan.  But she bore it all with such grace and example.  If we could have a smidgen of the fortitude and willingness that was in that young lady's heart, we would get so much more accomplished for the Kingdom.
     It's hard to give ourselves to everything God wants us to do.  It is emotionally and physically exhausting sometimes.  Just yesterday, our pastor reiterated that the ministry is not about us.  Mary really got that.  Was it inconvenient to give birth in a stable?  Absolutely.  Was it a nuisance to have people coming by throughout the night?  I think it must have been.  But the whole reason she said yes to God was for this moment.  And maybe this moment wasn't exactly what she had envisioned, but she knew it was not about her.  It was about this new life she had just brought into the world.  Could God have selected me if I were living during that time?  Highly unlikely.  Mary did not have any supernatural powers that allowed her to have a more willing heart than mine.  She just understood that some of the most important things in life, are the hardest.  And she was willing to put up with some inconvenience to see God's plan through.  If I gripe about not getting a good night's rest, I obviously still don't get it.  And when I see Mary's attitude, I see I still have a lot of work to do on my own.

Lift Up Your Heads (Remembering 9/11)

Today's passage:  Luke 21:28
     "And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh."
     Ten years ago tomorrow, I lifted my head, started my morning routine, and drove to work.  I taught third grade.  My husband and I (no kids yet) had just bought our house that May.  I was just getting used to the morning rush hour commute, having only been driving to the school for a few weeks.  We live across town, couldn't afford anything on the side of the city where both of us worked, so I spent my usual 35-45 minute ride listening to the radio, thinking about who knows what since I didn't have kids fighting and complaining or asking questions in the back seats.  It is hard to remember what life was like before children, and yet I had a very full and busy one teaching.  I didn't hear the reports on the radio because I arrived early enough for teacher's meeting.  I was actually on time.  In Chicago, you can leave at the same time every day, and still arrive at a different time.  But this morning, I was a little early.  Every morning we had devotions and prayer requests before starting the day.  Our kindergarten teacher is the one who asked for prayer because she heard that a plane had hit the top of the World Trade Center.  As most everyone thought, without having seen any pictures, we assumed a little Cessna had calculated terribly and possibly skimmed the top, only injuring those on board.  It seemed like one of those fluke accidents you sometimes hear about.  As was often my routine, following the meeting, I went into the school kitchen to pour my cup of coffee (this is where I started the caffeine habit) ready to face the day.  Little did I know what a day it was to be.  As I was talking with some co-workers, our principal came into the kitchen and said to us, "Another plane has hit the World Trade Center".  Conversation stopped.  We were in disbelief.  Another one had hit?  Well, then, that had to mean...Yes, he told us, we were under attack.  Living in a city like Chicago, you automatically think you are a target.  We aren't exactly under the radar, and if you have ever seen our downtown, it would be a terrorist's dream.  I can get to O'hare International Airport in ten minutes.  I stress International because if we were at war, and hijacked planes were being used as missiles, what was next?  I tried to process this information as quickly as I could because I had about twenty 8 and 9 year olds to teach that morning.  Children are very intuitive.  They can sense when something is not right.  I was in the middle of Bible class when our school secretary discreetly slipped in and told me another plane had hit the Pentagon.  The Pentagon?  Not 20 years ago, my own father had worked in that building.  Suddenly a personal connection.  I had been to his office.  This is a place I knew.
     Parents started arriving (many who worked downtown, which had mostly been evacuated, just in case) to pick up children.  Some of them because they had nothing else to do for the rest of the day as their workday had ended early, some of them because they felt the sudden need to have their little ones close.  At break times, teachers would visit the school kitchen where a TV had been set up (this was not the norm) so we could catch updates.  This is how we heard about the plane going down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania although we weren't entirely certain if it was related to the other three.  Then I saw replays of the towers crashing to the ground one by one.  We had been given word that all the planes had been grounded.  This was of great relief and great concern.  As I monitored the children playing outside, carefree,  every plane that flew overhead was distressing.  Was it obeying orders to get out of the air, or was it on a renegade mission?  After a while, the sky became eerily quiet.  In Chicago, there always seems to be a plane flying overhead, so the absence of them was odd.
     I drove home listening to the reports of all that happened that day, by that time I had learned that the fourth plane was taken down by the brave passengers on-board.  I heard about many of the rescue workers who had been killed on their way up to save those trapped in the towers.  Arriving home, I switched on the television, toggling between channels that had only the coverage of this horrific day.  It was then that I saw people leaping to their deaths.  I sobbed convulsively.  People trying to escape the flames, but if unsaved, were falling into even greater flames. 
     As I lifted my head that gorgeous Tuesday morning, the weather here as pleasant as it was in New York City, I had no idea what would transpire that day.  As New Yorkers, and Washingtonians and all those who boarded Flight 93 lifted their heads from their pillows, ten years ago, they thought they were going to have an ordinary day.  As those in Manhattan lifted their heads to look up at the devastation above, they saw what looked like unleashed fury. 
     But some of them, in death, lifted their heads, and as they went to glory saw their Redeemer.  One day, I will lift up my head and it will not be to see these disturbing images that are played each year as a reminder to us what happened that day, but it will be to see my Lord and Savior coming to take me Home.  It will be to see Jesus, white robed, gathering all those who have accepted Him as the only Way, to take us to Heaven.  My redemption will be near.  We will never forget what happened on September 11, 2001.  We will never forget those who gave their lives, and those who continue to give lives to save us.  Somebody else gave His life.  It was Jesus Christ, and if you have never accepted Him today, don't wait.  Lift up your head and see that He died for you.  Your redemption is right there, waiting to save you.  You may not need to be saved from a hijacked airplane.  You may not need to be saved from a burning building, but if you do not know where you are going after this life, you may as well be in one of those situations.  Please visit my page:  Understanding Salvation if you have any questions about how you can know for sure that you will see Jesus at the end of this life.  Then one day you can lift up your head and see His hand outstretched to you, as He will to so many others who have accepted Him as their Savior, welcoming you into your eternal Home.

Blind in Nazareth

Today's passage:  Isaiah 61/Luke 4:18-21
     Jesus quotes the first two verses of Isaiah 61 when He teaches in the synagogue in Nazareth.  It was early in His ministry, shortly after His temptation in the wilderness.  The account of reading the actual verses is only recorded in Luke.  There are some slight differences in wording when Jesus reads from the book of Isaiah and the book of Isaiah in my Old Testament.  I am not questioning the validity, because they are all God's Words, I just find it curious that there is a whole phrase that I don't see in Isaiah 61:1 and what Jesus read in Luke 4:18.  The phrase is "....and recovering sight to the blind..."  The rest of the verse is almost word for word.  If Jesus added it, it is His right, because they are His words, and He can add what He wants to.  Did He add it in for this particular occasion, because he was talking to a hometown audience?  Was He trying to emphasize that the Nazarenes were blind?

Jesus read from the Book of Isaiah--Taken from The Children's Friend (Part 2)
By Mrs. Adelaide Bee Evans
Review and Herald Publishing Company, 1911, 1928

     After He reads these verses, He sits down and declares that today the Scripture has been filled.  He was the Anointed One who would cause all these things to happen.   If I had been sitting in the synagogue that day, I probably would have regarded Jesus with the same skepticism that the Nazarenes had.  This was a man I would have watched grow up.  I would have gone to the carpentry shop and asked Him to build me a table or to repair a chair.  I would have heard Mary boast about what a fine man her Jesus was.  I would have followed Him into the synagogue each Sabbath.  I would have seen Him board up His shop, kiss His mother goodbye, and walk out of town without a single belonging.  I would have scratched my head at the strange accounts I had been hearing in nearby towns.  Accounts of miraculous healing, water turning into wine, sermons preached in the wilderness.  I would have thought, "Why not here?  If He was going to become a preacher and a miracle worker, why not here?"  When He did return, I would have listened cautiously, not with my heart but with my head, trying to analyze why He would come back now.  I would wonder why He stopped reading in the middle of verse 2.  Why didn't He finish the verse about the day of vengeance and comforting those who mourn?  After all, the Messiah would overthrow the Roman tyrants to whom I paid taxes.  He would exact revenge on those who had persecuted us. Why didn't He read about that part, if He was the Anointed One? I would grind my teeth at His suggestion that He was a great prophet, putting Himself in a category with Elijah and Elisha.  I would have helped drive Him out of the synagogue, I would have been first in line to throw Him off the high cliff.  Then I would have been amazed when He was able to push past us without being harmed.  I would have been further amazed when I heard a few days later, a demon was cast out in Capernaum. I would have taken offense that He never returned to our town, that He only sent His followers to preach.  When would my eyes be opened?  When I heard that Mary and her other children would travel to Jerusalem to witness her son being crucified?  When I heard that the tomb for Joseph's son was empty?  When a group of His followers insisted that He went up into Heaven before their very eyes?  How long would my heart be hardened?  When would I believe?  When would I recover my sight?  Only when I recognized that the Messiah was not who I thought He should be and when I acknowledged He was who God meant Him to be.  Not a political pawn, but a suffering Savior.  Then I would realize why He stopped reading in the middle of the verse.  I would remember that He said He would return, and then He would exercise judgement, then He would soothe the grieving.  I would have been blind, but my sight would be restored.  I would finally see that He was the Anointed One.