Pondering Mary: Luke 1:26-56

In the title of this post, "pondering" could either be a verb or an adjective.  I've been pondering about Mary this morning, when my fiance' and I were discussing this passage.  But we can see how the word is an adjective in Luke 2:19: "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart."  I'm going to imitate Mary and ponder "all these things"--the birth of Jesus--from her perspective for a bit today.

In Biblical times, women were pledged in marriage (not a sexual union but as binding a relationship as marriage) as young as fifteen or sixteen.  We can assume Mary to be about that age.  She was young, a virgin, and probably known by almost everyone in the small town of Nazareth, where she and her betrothed, Joseph, lived.  We know that Joseph was a carpenter, so neither of them was very wealthy.

Mary was "highly favored" by God (Luke 2:18).  He had found favor with her, and had chosen her as the young woman to be the mother of his Son.  Mary was visited by an angel, six months after Mary's cousin Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah were visited by the same angel and Elizabeth miraculously became pregnant despite being well along in years.  This angel, Gabriel, told Mary that she would "be with child and give birth to a son" (1:31)  Gabriel explained that this baby would be the Son of God.  Mary, quite understandably, asked, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" (1:34)  "The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you...For nothing is impossible with God" (1:35, 37).

Now, Mary was a good Jewish girl, and had heard her whole life about the coming Messiah that would be the Savior of God's people.  She know how powerful God was.  But in imagining this conversation she had with Gabriel, I wonder what was going through her mind: "I'm going to be pregnant even though I'm a virgin?  What will my parents say?  What will Joseph think?  What about the whole town?  They're never going to believe me that it's the Holy Spirit that made me pregnant.  I mean, yeah, nothing is impossible with God, but how am I going to convince everyone of that?  Will Joseph still want to marry me?  He's going to think I've been unfaithful to him!  The punishment for adultery is death!  I could die!!  What is God thinking?!?"

Chances are, if I had been in Mary's place, that's the sort of thing that would have been going through my head.  We don't know what mary was thinking, but we know what she said, and it was an incredible display of faith: "'I am the Lord's servant,' Mary answered.  'May it be to me as you have said'" (1:38).

We often skim over this verse, but just think of the implications of it!  Despite the dozens of difficulties and accusations that Mary was about to face, she was faithful and trusting in God.  She went along with the plan, no matter how crazy it might have seemed.

Joseph was, understandably, very concerned when he learned that Mary was pregnant, but being a kind man, he planned to divorce her quietly instead of publicly disgracing her which would have led to her stoning and death.  Before he could do this, he too was visited in a dream by Gabriel, who explained what had happened to Mary.  Joseph believed the angel's message and took Mary to be his wife.  They later had several other children, and settled back in Nazareth after Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  (I'll get to that story another day!)

Mary is probably the Biblical woman whose faith I most desire to emulate.  The book of Romans wouldn't be written for many years, but Mary realized that when God's in control, everything works out for good.  Probably at the time of her pregnancy, she had no idea how much the baby inside her would change the course of human history, and be her own deliverer.  I know she was somewhat aware of it (Gabriel shared a lot with her), but not until she saw her Son hanging from the cross, and then risen from the grave three days later, did she really understand what it meant to be the mother of God's Son.

One of my favorite Christmas songs, that connects nicely to this, is "Mary, Did You Know?"  Here's a link.