Mary Did You Know – Loving, even in the promise of sorrow

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I am beginning to understand why there is such a connection with Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

Over the last few weeks there have been 7 deaths in our small community. Lives altered forever. Among those were three teens that went missing over the weekend. Searchers found them yesterday, after three days of waiting, in the wreckage of a terrible single car accident.

Of all of the outlandish or wild speculations people had, no one ever imagined such a heart breaking tragedy had already come to pass. We did not know as we prayed for them to come home. The news of their death was a total shock. As a mother my heart was pierced with the pain that I knew these three mothers are   experiencing. I was shocked and cried but my grief is but a shadow. When my sorrow is played out, I get to wipe my face and move forward, but this day will never be the same for them. It will hang in their memory forever, never far out of focus.

Mary Did You Know?

In Luke 2:22, the Holy family presents Jesus and Mary, to the temple to receive their ceremonial purification. It was there that Simeon; promised by the Holy Spirit to see the savior-messiah, takes the infant Jesus, in his arms and speaks a blesssing over him and Mary.

Luke 2:33 And Joseph and his mother were wondering at the things spoken concerning him, 34and Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, ‘Lo, this [one] is set for the falling and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign spoken against — 35(and also thine own soul shall a sword pass through) — that the reasonings of many hearts may be revealed.’

Mary has to hear these words and wonder. “A sword will pierce your soul.” What is the meaning of this cold, harsh truth, spoken over her tender heart as a blessing, even while she holds her warm, squirming baby boy. The promise of a sword piercing her very soul hanging in her memory forever, never far out of the main focus.

Mary watching with joy as her son grows stronger. Did she fear loving him, knowing what was promised?

In Matthew 2 the Magi, arriving in a huge and strange caravan, come to give honor to the one born King of the Jews, as shown to them in their charts of the heavens. They come bearing gifts; gold for a King, frankincense for a Priest, and myrrh a expensive spice used in the preparing the bodies of the dead.

Mary Did You Know the Price of the gift you received?

Did her heart give a flutter as the scent of myrrh filled the room? Did she remember those who had passed before her, the silence as the women around her worked in their grief preparing their loved ones for the grave. The work of women, life and death. Did she remember the promised sword?

Yet, she did not guard her heart, she loved. She encouraged. Mary yielded, even as we all, as Mothers, must. She loved her boy, man, God; because he was first, her son. She stored every moment, knowing they were already measured. She might have sold off the frankincense and gold, but did she keep the myrrh, to remind her that there was an end she would have to accept one day.

Mary Did You Know The Sorrow to Come?

As I read about the kids, being found already gone three days; after I wept, I thought of Mary. I thought of the prophecy of the sword piercing her soul. I knew there were no truer words ever written. The piercing pain of loss. I have never tasted the sting that Mary received the day her soul was pierce by the death of her firstborn son. But it comes. Every day, Mothers weep somewhere.
The longer I live, I understand more and more, the indentification with Mary.

Those that are still here. Long after Christ is Glorified and seated on the throne in heaven.  We are here. Still finding socks of a child who will never wear them again. Still knowing the dates that come sharply into focus several times a year.

Mary Did You Know the Hope We are Assured of?

Mary treasured these things in her heart. It is repeated several times in the gospels. I am thankful that our heart can hold so much more than just sorrow. It is strong enough to carry hope, love and joy; at the same time as sorrow, pain and grief. There is room for both.

Mary Knew…yet she poured into Jesus all of the years that she had.

We are given but one option, we must love blindly and without limit, because we do not know the future for our children. Every day is a treasure. I will treat each one as if it has an expiration date, and use it up all of the way.

I pray for our community and offer my open hands. There are no words that will bring you more comfort than shared tears, a treasury of memories you have stored in you heart and a hoped forward eternity together one day.

Blessings,

Amber