Mary Did You Know? (Luke 1 and 2)

The song titled, “Mary Did You Know?” was written by Mark Lawry in 1984.  It is one of my favorite Christmas songs.  

    

“Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day walk on water?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered, will soon deliver you.

Mary did you know that your baby boy would give sight to a blind man?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would calm a storm with his hand?
Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
And when your kiss your little baby, you’ve kissed the face of God.

The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again.
The lame will leap, the dumb will speak, the praises of The Lamb.

Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary did you know that your baby boy would one day rule the nations?
Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect Lamb?
This sleeping child you're holding is the Great I Am.”

Luke chapters 1 and 2 give the account of Mary’s pregnancy and Jesus’ birth and childhood.  I have wondered many times, just like Mark Lawry’s song above, if Mary really understood everything that was happening.  The angel Gabriel had spoken to her, she had witnessed the miracle pregnancy of her relative Elizabeth, and she had met shepherds who had been visited by angels that told them about her baby…can you imagine what that would have been like?  To know that the baby you had carried in your womb and given birth to would be the Savior of the entire world?

When Gabriel first told Mary, she did not argue or have doubts.  She was afraid, but her only question was, “How is this going to happen, I am a virgin?”  Then the angel explained that the Holy Spirit would be the father. Her response was, "I am the Lord's servant, may it be to me as you have said."  How hard must it have been for her to just be obedient and not ask a million questions! 

When the shepherds came to the stable to find Jesus, it must have amazed her that they even knew He was there.  Luke writes, “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.”  She had so much to ponder!  

I love singing the song “Mary Did You Know.”  I think about what Mary was imagining as she held the Son of God in her arms, as she kissed His tiny face.  Everything that had been told to her by the angel Gabriel had come to pass.  But now what?  How was she going to raise this baby to be the Savior of the world?  (We do good to just get our kids through High School!)  But I imagine there was no worry there…just amazing faith.  

How awesome it must have been to watch her baby boy grow up to be a man.  He healed the sick, He taught about God, He performed miracles and then He gave His life.  As she watched her cherished son hanging there on that tree, I imagine that her amazing faith is what got her through it.  She had to have known that he would rise again on the third day.  I’m sure she had to go back in her mind to that first visit from the angel Gabriel and remember all of the things that had happened since that day and draw her strength from that.  

When we start to worry, face problems or lose a cherished loved one…we need to go back to that first visit from Gabriel and ponder all of the promises Jesus fulfilled.  “For no word from God will ever fail.”  Luke 1:37   We need to hide God’s word in our hearts and keep our eyes on Jesus, because there are promises yet to be fulfilled.  Before He left this world, He said “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”  John 14:3 

Be comforted by these words this Christmas season. 

  GLORY to GOD in the HIGHEST!!!