By Guest Writer
When I was young, my church put on a Christmas pageant every year. At age 8, I was given the extreme honor of performing a solo for that year’s pageant. My shining moment came as Mary and Joseph were traveling to Bethlehem, looking for somewhere safe to stay where Mary could give birth to Jesus. As Mary and Joseph came upon the inn my character was “working” at, I burst into song, repeating over and over, “No room. No room.”
That’s it. “No room.” My twenty seconds of fame. (Twenty might be generous.)
This follows the story I learned about Mary growing up: She was visited by an angel and told she would give birth to Jesus. She was afraid Joseph, her fiancé, would leave her, but he was then visited by an angel too! They traveled on a donkey to Bethlehem for a census, and while they were there, the time came for Mary to give birth. But there wasn’t anywhere for them to stay! (Time for my solo—“No room. No room.”) And so when Jesus was born, He was laid in a manger, a food trough for animals. He grew up, and that’s when the story really began.
For the most part, this was all I’d really learned about Mary. But one of the best parts of Mary’s story actually came at the very beginning, when she was first visited by the angel. When the angel told her she would be the mother of Jesus, God’s own Son, she was quick to question, ”How can this be, since I have not had sexual relations with a man?” (Luke 1:34). Mary was likely confused and concerned, given her engagement to Joseph, as any young woman would be upon receiving such news. But the angel counters her confusion and fear with a reminder of the power of the Lord her God. He told Mary that the child she was carrying would be called the Son of God. And then he reminded her of her cousin Elizabeth and the son she was carrying after years of infertility. Nothing is impossible with God.
Mary’s response to the angel is simple and powerful: “I am the Lord’s servant…May it happen to me as you have said” (Luke 1:38). Before Jesus was even born, His mother was committed to being a servant of the Lord. Even though her life was being turned upside down, her own plans disrupted, and her future with Joseph was unsure, one thing remained true: She was a servant of the Lord. And because she trusted in the Lord, she knew that His plans for her life were better than the ones she had herself.
In moments of uncertainty, when we’re told that something will likely turn our life upside down, we may try to cope with it by hanging on to whatever sense of control we think we have at that time. We try to keep a tight, white-knuckled grip on what we think we know to be best for us; those are easy reactions that offer a false sense of security. But Mary did the exact opposite—she let go. And with open hands she gave herself to God’s plan.
Written by Ellen Taylor
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