Faith

---

We love to look at the beauty of the Christmas Season. The birth of a Savior…

We are able to see and appreciate the joy of the incarnation and nativity because we know the rest of the story of Jesus Christ.

But let’s go back and place ourselves in the position of Mary:

Mary was in her early teens when she received a visit from an angel. She would have just arrived at puberty and, as was the tradition, was engaged to be married to Joseph, a local carpenter. Like all girls of this age, Mary would not have been sophisticated or mature. She would not have had a mature understanding of the Jewish scriptures. She lived in a backwater town, far from the centers of religious education. She would not have known, much less understood what lay ahead.

Let’s look at the messiness of what Mary faced:

The angel told Mary that she had been chosen by God to bear a child and that the boy would be the Son of God. Although Mary probably didn’t understand the meaning of that, she chose to obey. Messy!

Imagine Mary telling her parents! What would their reaction be? What would your reaction be today, when such things are much more accepted, if your early teen daughter said “I’m pregnant!”?

The she had to tell her fiance, Joseph. We know his initial reaction. He wanted to break off the engagement. In the traditions of that time, that meant divorce. Very messy!

Can you imagine the whispers and finger-pointing in Nazareth? May, poor Mary… an adulteress! The scandal. The penalty for a woman caught in adultery was death. Messy! MONTHS of ostracism.

Mary chose to accompany her husband on his journey to Bethlehem. Nine months pregnant. A difficult and messy journey at best.

When Joseph and his pregnant bride arrived at the Inn, they were turned away. Was there truly no room, or was it the scandal? Messy!

The baby was born in a stable… a barn! Used to house animals, with all the things that accompany that. The pictures we see all show a nice, tidy manger scene. Do you believe this is how it was? Or was it messy?

Herod the Great was so worried about the birth of a King that he had young boys killed. Mary and Joseph along with baby Jesus fled to Egypt. The messiness has expanded into the larger world.

You get the picture. Mary’s life remained messy… and she maintained her obedience and faith… to the Cross and beyond. I’m certain that the messy life of her Son was nothing like she’d expected following the angel’s visit.

The life of Jesus was full of messiness as well… as human life has been messy since Adam and Eve were banished from Eden.

Being a Christian does not guarantee us that life will be a smooth road. In fact it is quite the opposite. Life IS messy and even more messiness enters when we live a Christian life in a secular world.

But the message, the meaning of the nativity is the HOPE of Jesus.

And that makes it all worthwhile.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Art
Alive in The Word

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE