Mary's Advent

Today, I saw a traditional picture of Mary and Jesus, the halos around their heads and that sacred feeling that painters give to those renown portraits. It drew me in, into myself, into the picture, into Christ, into the past. I saw pregnant Mary walking down a dirt road to her relative's house, Elizabeth, who would soon know of Mary's pregnancy by her very own child jumping within her womb. I see the serene look on Mary's face, a look of surrender, of gratitude, joy; that glow of pregnant woman expectancy and yet something more. I have always been drawn to sweet Mary. Not because she bore Christ, but because of her heart, because of her response to God and to the Christ child.

They [the shepherds] hurried off and found both Mary and Joseph, and the baby who was lying in the feeding trough. After seeing them, they reported the message they were told about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary was treasuring up all these things in her heart and meditating on them.
-Luke 2:16-19

While the world was in awe and excitement, spreading the story of the Christ child in the trough, Mary was silent. She treasured the present. She thought deeply on what she treasured. She waited. Mary knew so much more was to come. She knew that the years ahead would be full of beauty and joy and pain. The promise wasn't over yet. Christ had come, but He was still coming.

Then the angel told her...You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and His kingdom will have no end.
-Luke 1:31-33

See, the virgin will become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they will name Him Immanuel, which is translated 'God is with us'.
-Matthew 1:23

But again, in my mind's eye, I saw pregnant Mary walking down the dirt path to Elizabeth's house. And I could nearly feel a leaping in my own womb as I imagined their intimate greeting and Elizabeth exclaiming How could this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? (Luke 1:43). And then, knowingly, from the very birth that she awaited in her old age, Elizabeth said, She who has believed is blessed because what was spoken to her by the Lord will be fulfilled! Then, Mary's response: she praised God (Luke 1:46-55).


You see, this treasuring and meditating, this gratitude towards our Heavenly Father existed

in Mary's heart even before the birth of Christ. With gratitude and meditation, Mary carried Christ, and with gratitude and meditation, she bore Him into this world. And even then, she waited, knowingly, expectant, for what more was to be born in Him and through Him. But the Lord always speaks to me personally and as my imagination was drawn back out of the Christmas portrait and into the little room in Comfort, Texas, I saw the parallels in my own life with the life of Mary. I saw that I have been drawn to the heart of Mary because God has called me to have a heart like Mary when responding to Him and His promises that He has conceived in my spirit. And I am grateful in realizing that I have been blessed with many Elizabeths along the journey. 

Consider your relative Elizabeth-even she has conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called childless. For nothing will be impossible with God.

Luke 1:36