Mary Did You Know?

Mary Did You Know? is one of my favorite songs at Christmas.  I often wonder what she did grasp about this huge task she was undertaking.  She was barely a teenager and soon to be the mother of Jesus.  Wow!  How awesome is that?  Have you ever wondered what was going through her mind during this time in her life?  I have and somehow in my mind her days went something like this.....
 
It all started that night when the angel showed up. He was telling me how much God loved me and how I was going to be blessed. Then he said that I would become pregnant before Joseph and I got married. To be honest, I’m still not sure how being an unwed teenage mother in a small town where gossip spreads like wildfire is a blessing from God.
 
When people found out, it was horrible. My father wouldn’t even look me in the eye for weeks. When I would walk down the street I would hear the whispers. “Look at her!  She should be ashamed of herself. She comes from such a great family and this is how she repays them. And poor Joseph—such a good man. He doesn’t deserve something like this. God will judge her.”
 
I was sure my life was over when Joseph came to see me. I thought he was going to tell me that our engagement was off, but instead he said the angel had visited him, too, and that he knew God was doing something great. I could tell from his voice that he wasn’t sure he really believed what he was saying, but then again, I wasn’t sure I believed it either. When my belly was so big I thought I would burst at any moment, Joseph told me we would have to travel to a faraway town for the census. As we made the journey I began to feel the pains. At first I wasn’t sure if it was contractions or just that the donkey wasn’t very steady on its feet. But sure enough, when we got to Bethlehem my water broke. None of the houses had any room for us, even though I was clearly in labor. One man said he’d do us a favor by letting us stay in his stable. Some favor. I didn’t want my baby to be born in a cold, wet cave surrounded by filthy animals. Still, it was better than nothing.
 
After he was born I was holding him, trying to rock him to sleep and I started crying. There I was in a town where we knew no one, with a baby people at home knew wasn’t Joseph’s. “I’m so young,” I thought. “I can barely take care of myself. How can I take care of a baby?” Just when I thought God had abandoned me, I looked down at my son. He was staring
up into my eyes with a calm that I’d never seen in anyone before. It was as if this little infant was saying, “It’s OK, mommy. God will somehow make this all work out.” And somehow, deep down, I knew it was true. Somehow God would make it all work out.  It really did not matter if Mary knew.