Imagine Being the Chosen Mother
Imagine being chosen to be the Mother of the Christ child. Let’s step back in time and as we do, engage your vivid imagination or visualization skills. Ready?
See yourself at sixteen, doing what sixteen year olds do. One day an angel appears to you. See yourself speechless, maybe a little frightened --- (okay, a lot frightened!) and thinking, "I am going stark raving bonkers! Okay, bring on the straight jacket, break out the Valium, I am hallucinating!"
But the angel says to you, "Be not afraid for I bring you good tidings of great joy!" He continues, "You have been chosen to be the mother of the Christ child. He shall be born and wrapped in swaddling clothes, and his name shall be Jesus!".
I don't know about you, but if I were sixteen, I’d be thinking, "Yeah, right! My dad will kill me if I come home pregnant! Of course, Dad is likely going to believe in Immaculate Conception --- Not even! I can’t be pregnant --- I am not married. Even if God says it, my parents will not believe a word of this! To boot, my boyfriend won't believe me! He’s going to think I am a slut. And that’s not to mention the townspeople. They are going to stone me to death! Pick someone else --- I pass!"
And the angel says, "No, Mary, because of your goodness you have been chosen amongst all women. Don't worry!"
By this time, my mind would be racing a mile a minute. I alternate between, "What an honour!" and "That’s easy for you to say! I am a single girl. We aren't even allowed to kiss, and God is going to place the Christ child into my womb?!" This is really scary stuff for a sixteen year old unmarried girl.
Sure enough, Mary finds herself with child. Her parents are scared. Joseph is so mad he doesn't speak to Mary, in fact, he actually becomes pretty hostile. Sure enough the townspeople want to stone Mary to death. What is she to do? So Mom and Dad decided to send Mary away to cousin Elizabeth's, who at over one hundred years old is expecting her first child. Mary walks the many miles to Elizabeth's. When Elizabeth sees Mary, she feels the baby within her leap with recognition. Elizabeth knows Mary is the chosen mother of Jesus because she, too, has had a dream. She would be the mother of the Prophet, John the Baptist.
Meanwhile, Joseph is being a real dirt bag and isn't at all supportive of Mary. To be fair, what would you think? Your virgin bride-to-be showed up and said she has been chosen by God, and by Immaculate Conception is now pregnant and will be the mother of the Messiah? EXACTLY! You would be behaving like a raving lunatic, too! You’d maybe be doing a little sarcastic name calling, possibly some drinking, and definitely taking some unkind "guff" from your guy friends. In fact, it’s your guy friends who then begin to join in the chorus of stoning your beloved Mary to death.
Eventually Joseph comes to his senses because he, too, is also visited by an angel, who tells him the whole scoop. He feels ashamed and asks Mary to get married, so she is under his protection from all those who want to see her dead. In the minds of the townspeople, she has committed the sin of adultery. They get married. Soon it is time to go and pay their taxes. Yep, they had taxes even way back then. Mary is near her due date.
Visualize this: Mary gets on a donkey and rides for days through the desert and rocky terrain to Bethlehem, where all Jewish people went to pay their taxes. Now, I don't know about you, but I remember when I was eight months pregnant. I rode in a little Volkswagen. I was as big as a house, my ankles were swollen, my face was blotchy, I was craving cheese (which I cannot eat due to lactose intolerance), and I was really really more than ready for my baby to come out already. But I was on my way to a hospital with doctors and nurses, a nice bed and clean sheets. If Ron had suggested that I ride a donkey around for days to another city, camping out in the cold desert night air, cooking dinner over a campfire after each long day’s ride, washing up out of a goatskin water bottle --- Are ya getting it? This Holy Mary Mother of God was one tough and faith filled woman!
So they get to Bethlehem and they pay their taxes and now Baby decides it’s time to be born. Well, after all those days bouncing along on a donkey, is there a wonder to any woman reading this the baby would be coming? They go from inn to inn but there is no room (because in those days there were no telephones to call ahead. You took your chances or camped out). No one cared or sympathized, because that‘s just how it was. However, a kind woman takes pity on them and tells her husband there is clean straw in the stable and, at least it is out of the cold wind. She suggests they can use the stable as a place to bed down.
Grateful, Joseph takes Mary to the stable. For company, they have all the animals. Wow! Those animals were blessed by Creator by being allowed to witness the Christ Child’s birth.
So, without fanfare, no sterile hospital, no clean sheets, no doctors or nurses, no drugs, no electricity --- a tiny baby is born in a stable, the sweetest and simplest of abodes, amongst the animals. And Mary, the chosen mother of Jesus, who believed and followed God’s will, gave birth to the Saviour of the world. She took care of herself, cleaned the baby Jesus, and cleaned herself. (My heart just skipped a beat and my skin got goosebumps visualizing it!)
Mary did a truly wonderful thing! When you pause for a moment and really reflect, WOW!
This Christmas day you might pause and say a special thank you in appreciation for Mary, the chosen mother of Jesus. Without this event, we would not be celebrating this special occasion, sharing the good tidings and blessings of the season.
We may not have the worldly possessions we desire. We may not have the people we love nearby. We may feel that our lives are not as we want. However, my prayer this day is that we each be thankful for what we do have.
On this day I invite you to celebrate and share something with a stranger, even if it is a hug or a smile. Be a chosen one: share and give the gift of LOVE to all, just as the Chosen Mother of God did all those years ago.
Based on a story by Nani Aki Linder
(Original on the Internet
Edited by B!)
