Advent Thoughts #12 - December 11

I keep wondering about Mary...and I keep wondering about what the Lord God opened her eyes to know. I went back to read Isaiah 53. It's all in black and white. Yet, the teachers of the law seemed to miss it. God the Father had allowed their eyes to be blind to the idea of His Son being the Suffering Servant, in order that His plan of salvation be fulfilled. So, I'm guessing Mary didn't know just then what was in store for the Messiah, her babe. Isn't that a good thing, though? What mom wants to see her newborn son shadowed by a cross over his cradle? (That's one of the great gifts of God...He often shelters us from the KNOW until we NEED TO KNOW!)  So, it was a gift of grace these words weren't ringing in Mary's ears that night in the manger:

He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, 
best friends with grief.
He was one from whom men hid their faces; 
He was despised and un-esteemed.

He has borne our griefs 
and carried our sorrow;
Yet he was stricken, 
and afflicted,
Pierced for our transgressions;
Crushed for our iniquities
Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace!
His wounds healed ours.

He was oppressed,
like a lamb led to the slaughter....
(Isaiah 53:3-7, paraphrased)

Yet, I'm so thankful this was God's plan. There in the midst of anguish is the gospel. God's Good News for mankind. He was pierced, crushed, chastised, wounded...that I might be made whole, healed, set free, and given peace....through His so-great-a-salvation!

He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who would receive Him, who would believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. So the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:10-14)

Mary may not have known that night in the Bethlehem stable, but Mary was a ponderer. Mary had a teachable spirit. As her child grew, and she began to see things, and hear more things, I have to believe the Lord opened her eyes slowly to the PLAN for ALL MANKIND. The pieces of the puzzle began to come together. Grief and hope mingled...and peace. I have to believe that as Jesus grew, Mary DID KNOW that her Son would soon Deliver her; and, in the midst of life, Mary surrendered her son to death. 

There's a lot for me to learn from this woman of faith, this human mom, who is not unlike any of us. The question now is, "Peg - what do you know?" Advent is near!