Today is Friday, May 11th, 2007; Karen's Korner #1060

It's Mothers' Day and an opportunity for mothers everywhere to celebrate! Being a mother brings both pleasure and pain; exhiliration and worries.
 
Could any mother have experienced a broader range of emotions that Jesus' mother Mary?
 
Taken from "personaility profiles" in the Life Application Living Bible (in part):
 
"Motherhood is a painful privilege. Young Mary of Nazareth had the unique privilege of being mother to the very Son of God. Yet the pains and pleasures of her motherhood are understood by mothers everywhere. Mary was the only human present at Jesus' birth who also witnessed his death. She saw him arrive as her baby son, and she watched him die as Savior.
 
Until Gabriel's unexpected visit, Mary's life was going about as well as she could hope. She had recently become engaged to a local carpenter, Joseph, and was anticipating married life. But Mary's life was about to change forever.
 
Angels don't usually make appointments before visiting. As if she were being congratulated as the grand winner of a contest she never entered, Mary found the angel's greeting puzzling and his presence frightening. What she heard next was the news almost every woman in Israel hoped to hear--that her child would be the Messiah. God's promised Savior. Mary did not doubt the message, but rather asked how pregnancy would be possible. Gabriel told her the baby would be God's Son. Her answer was one that God has been waiting in vain to hear from so many other people:  'I am the Lord's servant and I am waiting to do whatever the Lord wants' (Luke 1:38). Later, her song of joy to Elizabeth shows us how well she knew God, for her thoughts were filled with his words from the Old Testament.
 
Within days after his birth, Jesus was taken to the Temple to be dedicated to God. There Joseph and Mary were met by two prophets, Simeon and Anna, who recognized the child as the Messiah and praised God. Simeon added some words to Mary that must have come to her mind many times in the years that followed: 'A sword shall peirce your soul' (Luke 2:34). A big part of her painful privilege of motherhood would be to see her son rejected and crucified by the people he came to save.
 
We can imagine that even if she had known all she would suffer as Jesus' mother, Mary would have given the same answer. Are we as available to be used by God as Mary was?"

Back