Mystical Spring

We are tucked in snug here with a snowy forecast. The fireplace has been lit and the logs that we swore at as we chopped and sawed them into a proper size during our fall harvest, are now offering up to us their warmth as they dance across our toes.

It is winter now, the time when we turn inward, put on those extra pounds of insulation and prepare for the long haul ahead toward spring.

My thoughts on this Christmas Eve turn to Mary as she travels in the cold toward that stable in Bethlehem.

When you get a group of women together, they tend to speak of major life episodes. One such episode is childbirth.

I wonder what Mary’s thoughts were before she gave birth to her child? Did she know fear at the uncertainty of it all?

Did she think God might take her own life once she had been used for God’s purpose? After all, there is no mention that she would live afterwards to see her son grow up. There was no sure thing, no sure promise given to her, that she would thrive after giving birth. All she had been told was that she would bear a son, call him Jesus and he was to have a mission in life of influence.

It was all about him. It was not about her.

Mary’s ‘condition’, her state of mind at this moment must have been one of extreme fear of the unknown and yet we hear of her steadfast calm in the face of uncertainty.

I hope that as I stand on the threshold of a new decade, a new calendar year, a new season of Joy and Hope, that I may keep the courageous ‘condition’ of Mary in mind during snowy and stormy weather.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!