Mary’s Journey of Faith

[/caption] Deana Weyman-St Andrews King City Ont

Perhaps central to any celebration of Christmas is the picture of Mary holding the infant Jesus. Around the picture and beyond the biblical narrative some have developed a whole myth espousing for Mary a quasi – divine nature and claiming that she, like Jesus, was immaculately conceived. The biblical witness however tells us that Mary was much more like us than like the angels and it is precisely because she was fully human that she serves as an encouragement to us. Mary was an amazing example of human faithfulness as she walked along a path where she sometimes took a wrong turn.
Mary began her journey as an ordinary girl who was encountered by God in an extraordinary way. She was young and full of dreams for a future with a man to whom she was engaged. But an angel appeared to announce that God had a bigger plan for her and she submitted herself as a servant to God’s seemingly strange design. I don’t believe Mary at that time realized fully what that encounter meant or who this child of hers really was. She may have thought he would be the Messiah or the deliverer of Israel, or even the ruler of Israel, but to even imagine Jesus was God incarnate was more than anyone at the time could comprehend. The way the shepherds and wisemen showed up confirmed his special status, but Mary still didn’t fully understand whom she held in her arms.

The Bible says she was troubled by much of what she heard and yet she neither despaired nor dismissed it out of hand. Her visit to her cousin, Elisabeth, who also had a visitation from God, must have offered further confirmation that she wasn’t just imagining all this. Luke tells us that Mary treasured these things and pondered them in her heart. Sometimes in our own lives we have experiences that we don’t really understand. Mary shows that we need to meditate on these things, trusting that in God’s good time He will show us why this apparent tragedy is happening to us or what holy purpose these strange, amazing events have in the eternal plan of God. At the time of Jesus’ presentation at the temple, with Simeon and Anna prophesying over him, she and Joseph didn’t know what to think and could only marvel at it all. Yet Mary was thinking theologically; that is, she was seeking to understand the ways of God in these events.
It isn’t that Mary always got things right. When a 12 – year – old Jesus was found with the teachers in the temple, she scolded him for not being where she thought he should have been. Jesus simply replied that she didn’t understand what he was doing. Again the gospel writer Luke says she treasured all these things in her heart. Mary shows us that even when we are rebuked by God the correct response is not to turn away in resentment but to spend time reflecting on what God is doing and value the process even when we think He has treated us unfairly.
On another occasion, Mary and Christ’s brothers came to take him home, thinking that his religious activity had gotten out of hand. Jesus said his true family were those who submitted themselves to the will of God. This time of tension between Jesus and his mother was no doubt difficult. In the end, Mary is still with him at the cross and she herself is strongly connected with the faith community at Pentecost and beyond. We can believe that she has come to believe that her son, raised from the dead, is indeed the only begotten son of God and she may have been even more amazed than we are that God almighty should be born and dwell among us. The first names she heard for her son—Jesus, the one who saves us, and Emmanuel, God with us—she now knew to be true in deeper ways than she could have imagined.
We can ponder all the things written in the creeds so in our doubting times we can recall the experience and faith of the whole church. Mary, however, was a pioneer on the journey of faith, and we would do well to walk in her footsteps and ponder her life in this season when we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour.