Though the lyrics to so many wonderful Christmas carols are powerful, so many in the world sing them without really pondering them — they are so familiar, they’ve become inoculated to the meaning. But “Mary, Did You Know?” still causes them and us to think — as does this video from The Passion using the song.
This picture of Mary hearing from Gabriel is from Jesus of Nazareth, one of the best portraits I’ve seen of the nativity story.
May we be ponderers, as Mary was.
1. Sing the song contemplatively and share your thoughts.
Mary, did you know that your baby boy
would someday walk on water?
Mary, did you know that your baby boy
will 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?
Mary did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
When you 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 will 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!
2. Here are scenes from The Passion put to this song. Watch and share your reflections:
Click here.
3. Meditate on these phrases from Luci Shaw’s poems of the incarnation — share your thoughts:
A. The Word, stern-sentenced to be nine months dumb
B. Eternity walled in a womb
C. His cool immensity of splendor small-folded in a dim small female space
4. What do you think Mary really understood? Why do you think that? (Give Scripture references if possible.)
5. What’s your take-a-way this week?
70 comments
This video goes deep into my heart. I’m not yet sure what I think. I cried so much when I watched it. I am pondering the reason for that. The suffering of my Lord was heart wrenching but it was more even than that. As mothers we are more deeply affected because of how we are created. We can relate to Mary’s pain when her son stumbles and when He suffers so. I don’t know if knowing He was perfect made it harder for her than it is for us when our adult children suffer. All I know is that I can so relate to her pain.
Anne, I cryed through it too and I don’t know if I can bear to watch it again. I have one son, 29 and it wouldn’t matter to me if he was made perfect or not, he is still my son and it would hurt me so bad to see him suffer and in pain like that, even tho he is just a man, not God’s son. We as mother’s can relate to Mary’s pain, but it had to of been even harder knowing how perfect he was made, in God’s image.
Joyce,
Thank you for your prayers for my dad. God was good to him – he was released from the hospital Saturday afternoon. They did his colonoscopy and there was no more blood in the colon, so they are thinking that he may have bled from a diverticular pouch, as he has diverticulosis, or from sensitive tissue that was damaged years ago when he had radiation for prostate cancer.
We have to hope and pray that he doesn’t have another episode of bleeding again, but he’s okay so far! So good to know though that dad belongs to the Lord!
Thankful for hopeful report on Susan’s dad.
Yes, so good to know that! Praise God he is home and better!
Susan, so glad to hear about your dad! SO, SO glad to be reminded that He knows Jesus..It makes this whole process better even though it is so hard to watch your dad suffer in any way. To think you can encourage him with the word now and pray with him and know that no matter what happens He will some day be literally in the arms of Jesus..face to face… Praise God! :0)
1. Dee, I so agree with you about how we sing Christmas carols (and other hymns and worship songs) without really thinking about what we are singing, they have become so familiar we can sing the words while our brains are “out to lunch”!
So good to slow down and really ponder the meaning of the words, like we did last week with O Come O Come Emmanuel.
As I sang through the song this morning, Mary Did You Know, it brought tears to my eyes. The things that stood out to me were lines like:
When you kiss your little baby, you’ve kissed the face of God.
Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all Creation?
The sleeping child you’re holding is the great I AM!
There is no other religion in the world with its gods that is like Christianity, no other (made-up) god like our God, the One, True Living God. We would not invent for ourselves a God like the true God.
A God who is so awesome and majestic and powerful and “his paths beyond tracing out” yet, He came in the flesh as a BABY!
The contrast between what I have been reading as I go through the book of Exodus, where, when God came down on the mountain in a cloud of smoke and fire, and the people were told no one could even touch the mountain when He came down or they would die; where God said “No man can see my face and live”, and yet, here is God being held in Mary’s arms as a helpless infant. Scripture tells us that the wisdom of God is foolishness to so many people. It seems to make no sense that He would come in this way, yet is shows just how far He was willing to go to save His people. It shows how our mighty, powerful, majestic God was willing to indeed, stoop down and humble Himself.
That is why the contrast of Mary holding this baby boy and at the same time God in the flesh, the Creator, the great I AM, stood out to me.
How amazing is our God!
Susan, Excellent observations and truth here!! Thanks!
2. I watched the video with scenes from The Passion. I don’t know if this will make any sense, I have mixed feelings on this, so, here goes…
I’ve never seen the movie, The Passion. I know many who have seen it, and I know also of Christians whom I respect who feel it is wrong to have Jesus portrayed by an actor, who feel strongly that a portrayal of Jesus like that is not a true picture of who He is.
I have seen at other times scenes from the movie, and they always make me cry and feel very emotional. I think it’s impossible to watch anything like that and not be moved. Yet, I do have reservations, as I want to be careful to not just want to have an “emotional experience” and cry and get all stirred-up watching someone portray Christ.
If I can connect with God deeply through His Word, and have tears come as I read His Word, or when I’m talking to Him, that is more meaningful to me because then I feel I’ve connected with Him and He has touched me through His word speaking to me.
That being said, in the scenes I watched, I was moved by the scenes of Jesus with His mother, washing his hands and splashing water on her; how she picked him up when he fell as a little boy. There’s so much the Bible doesn’t tell us, I guess if we had a biography of His whole life, it would fill more books than we’d have time in our lifetime to read! It gives insight into His humanity, that He was a little boy who ran and fell down and got hurt, that He may have teased His mother and been playful with her – so much of the artwork of Jesus shows Him in a robe with a halo around His head, always looking holy.
I remember meeting a priest who showed a picture he had of Jesus walking with His fishermen friends, and He was like slapping one of them on the back and laughing. It’s good to remember He was like us, just without sin.
It’s good to ponder the special bond between Jesus and His mother, Mary. To reflect on the immense sorrow that Mary must have felt as events led to her son’s arrest and crucifixion, things that were beyond her power to fix. To say that her heart was broken is probably an understatement. What she had to watch her son go through was horrific. I imagine she must have felt she was dying along with Him.
Anne, Joyce, and Susan — your initial responses are so good.
I debated about the video because it is so graphic, and it does tear at our hearts.
I know many in my denomination are hesitant about portraits of Jesus in art or film. J. I. Packer denounces it in chapter 4 of Knowing God. I think every portrait must of necessity fall so short. We see through a glass darkly. But I also know that portraits have moved me — and I think they can be done well. I felt my daughter’s portrait of Aslan miraculous, and the Martin French portraits move me. I too have mixed feelings about The Passion — and you have to sort that all out with Mel Gibson’s life. Yet every artist, producer, and actor is a sinner, so it will be marred. Yet still, it helps me think, see, ponder — knowing it is only a glimpse. I find them not only helpful for children, but for me. Yancey did a video curriculum on movies of Jesus asking how close people came — and most were pretty bad with a mild and meek Jesus in a bathroom. But we want to see Him, understand Him, so we try in our enormously limited way.
I did like the parallel between Mary as a mother of the young Jesus falling and then Jesus as a man.
Just liistened to a great sermon about six times by Tim Keller on Psalm 126 in which he says the Christian has deeper joy and deeper sorrow than the non-Christian. I am seeing that in you.
Would love to hear more thoughts on portraying Jesus in art and film. Good discussion — and it is done so much at Christmas.
I’m sorry but I haven’t read anyone’s comments yet.. So here is what I wanted to say..Oh my goodness…I cried..I can’t explain how I feel after watching this…I remember this scene when we went to see the movie and I cried then too…There was so much going on back then when Jesus was here in flesh..So much that a lot of us seem to not desire to focus on..The humanity of it all..wow, yet coupled with the underlying spiritual significance..It is powerful with the way they portray Mary and the real-ness of her experience. I cried when it flashed back to Jesus falling down when he was a boy and her memories as she watched him walk with the cross on his back….Wow..as a mom I can certainly relate to that sacrificial and deep, deep love..But I am also envious in a good way..I want to have that deep affection for Jesus like what she had..Even though I didn’t birth Jesus I believe God wants us too and He wants us to see Him I think in some of the ways this movie portrays Him. His humanness while He was here..He was like us but without sin..
haha! Oh my, I messed up a sentence.. “Even though I didn’t birth Jesus I believe God wants us too…” :0) I didn’t mean God wanted us to birth Jesus.. I meant He wants us to have the kind of affection Mary had for Him. We can’t have the mother-son connection because we didn’t birth Him, but you know what I am trying to say! ;0)
Oh, wow.. Great points in Dee’s comment…My opinion is probably off base I don’t know, but I firmly believe God can “use” people or artists like Mel Gibson who may not know Him. God is bigger than Mel Gibson and even though Mel may not know Him or be messed up, I firmly believe God used that film in a huge way despite Mel. 🙂 (I haven’t read all the comments yet so I hope I haven’t stepped on anyone’s toes by saying this the way I did.. I just wanted it to be a short read, so I apologize!! :0).. )
On a side note, I heard this gem of a thought from Rich Mullins a long time ago and it stuck with me. He referred to the fact that God has ‘used’ some pretty evil and messed up people in scripture to accomplish His purposes and that he would rather be ‘wanted by God’ than merely be used by God.. God can ‘use’ anyone to accomplish His purposes, but to be wanted? WOW! ;0)
I also cried as I watched the video. Not being a mother I can’t say I relate to watching my children fall but I remember my mother having to be escorted out of the emergency room because she could not bear to watch me being stitched back together after a softball hit me in the mouth. I’ve been pondering Mary’s reaction to Jesus’ death on the cross all morning. I think only a mother could stand there and ‘take in’ the hurt that her child endured on the cross. I’m sure Mary saw people hanging on crosses many times before Jesus was put to death on one. She just never expected her son to be up there.
I belong to a denomination that keeps Mary way back in the background. She was the mother of Jesus and that’s all we need to know. There is much frowning upon giving her any prominence. I personally have enjoyed studying her life on a deeper level. As for Jesus being portrayed in movies I have heard both sides. No it’s not a good thing to do. Yes it was great. I think The Passion was the most authentic when it came to the death of Jesus. My ex husband is Hispanic so I watched the Spanish version of the Christmas Story the years we were married. Jesus’ childhood years were emphasized with him demonstrating miraculous signs before adulthood. Joseph was portrayed as a much older man than Mary.
Everyone’s views are so interesting.
Joyce,
How are you doing post-surgery with your back? I hope you are slowly returning to your normal activities (not lifting, though!) and are getting to be pain-free!
Can you give us an update?
Susan, thank you for asking. I am very sore yet and not doing much at all. No more walker, but have to wear my brace for some time yet. I’m trying not to lift and do too much, but it’s hard with Kendra. Maurice does most of everything tho, he is wonderful, helping us both. I’m very blessed.
3a. The Word, stern-sentenced to be nine months dumb – O.K. I will take a try at this one..
* God who is the word, who is all powerful, all present is in Mary’s womb walled up for nine months…This doesn’t mean He lost any of his power or majesty..Oh no, quite the contrary. The whole process of God wrapping himself in flesh and developing inside Mary’s womb screams of His majesty, power, wonder..God makes himself a helpless fetus swimming around in amniotic fluid, not being able to see hear or speak.. The one who is everywhere-omnipresent, all powerful is now bound inside Mary’s dark womb for nine months as a helpless, tender, dependent babe..The one who is the great counselor and communicator is silent..As he develops he can hear inside Mary’s womb at some point but he is inside unable to communicate…God in the flesh, comes down and willingly steps inside our experience as Humans..the Humans He created..He designed..yet He is still God.
Good thoughts, Rebecca…God bound in a womb, unable to hear, see, or speak, bound in darkness there.
Good pondering and visualization
I want to use these Christmas songs as a basis for praise — so, here goes:
“Mary, did you know that your baby boy would someday walk on water?”
LORD I REMEMBER HOW YOU WALKED TO PETER WHEN HE WAS SINKING. SO OFTEN I HAVE BEEN SINKING AND YOU HAVE REACHED OUT TO ME. YOU HAVE DONE IT FOR PEOPLE I LOVE TOO, INCLUDING THE WOMEN ON THIS BLOG. YOU ARE MERCIFUL AND MINDFUL OF US.
Mary, did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
HOW THANKFUL I AM THAT YOUR GREAT SALVATION IS AVAILABLE TO MY CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN AND THAT IN YOUR MERCY YOU HAVE REACHED OUT TO EACH OF THEM.
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new
YOU ARE TURNING MY HEART OF STONE INTO A HEART OF FLESH, THOUGH I KNOW THERE ARE STILL PLENTY OF ROCKS — I KNOW YOU ARE MAKING ME NEW AND I THANK YOU FOR THAT POWER
This child that you’ve delivered will soon deliver you
YOU HAVE DELIVERED ME FROM A MEANINGLESS LIFE, FROM THE DEPTHS OF GRIEVE, FROM SINS THAT CHAINED ME.
Mary did you know that your baby boy would give sight to a blind man?
YOU ARE OPENING MY EYES TO PEOPLE, TO YOUR WORD, TO YOUR GREAT CREATION WHICH AT THIS MOMENT IS A CRIMSON SKY PEAKING THROUGH BARE BRANCHES — HOW GLORIOUS YOU ARE
Mary, did you know that your baby boy would calm a storm with his hand?
HOW MANY STORMS YOU HAVE CALMED IN OUR LIVES — HELPING THE WOMEN ON THIS BLOG WITH SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN, WITH PRODIGALS — EVEN WHEN THE CIRCUMSTANCES CONTINUE TO STORM, YOU ARE WITH US
Mary did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod?
YES — YOU LEFT HEAVEN AND HAVE RETURNED — YOU ARE VERY GOD OF VERY GOD
When you kiss your little baby, you’ve kissed the face of God.
THAT YOU WOULD HUMBLE YOURSELF FOR US — MY HEART IS FILLED WITH GRATITUDE
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
ALL THIS YOU HAVE DONE AND CONTINUE TO DO FOR YOU ARE NOT A FAR-A-WAY GOD BUT AN EVERPRESENT HELP, A MINDFUL SAVIOR, AND YET YOU ARE THE GREAT I AM
Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation
Mary, Did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nations
YES — YOU ARE COMING BACK. THIS SUNDAY THE PASTOR WAS GOING THROUGH ISAIAH 61 AND MENTIONED THAT WHEN YOU READ THE SCROLL YOU STOPPED JUST BEFORE THE SECOND COMING WHEN YOU WILL RETURN IN WRATH AND RULE — MAY I NEVER FORGET WHO YOU ARE
Did you know that your baby boy is heaven’s perfect lamb
This sleeping child you’re holding is the great I AM!
YOU ARE VERY GOD — I AM WHO I AM — FOR YOU CAN BE COMPARED TO NOTHING ELSE. THE GREAT I AM
BLESSED BE YOUR NAME
2. Here are scenes from The Passion put to this song. Watch and share your reflections:
Click here.
3. Meditate on these phrases from Luci Shaw’s poems of the incarnation — share your thoughts:
A. The Word, stern-sentenced to be nine months dumb
Beautiful, Dee
Thanks, Dee. Your posting goes straight to my heart!
Thankyou for your post. I am going to re-read it again when I have a little more time to spend and ponder it.
Dee, I thank you for your Christmas letter, and comments about each of your beautiful blessings, grandaughters! When you commented on your daughter who said she didn’t want to read, just look at her baby—my, that brought back memories for me, of 28 years ago, and my beautiful daughter! And, when you said that your other daughter’s heart has grown so much, that brought back memories, too. When I first saw my daughter after her birth, I actually FELT my heart expand with the love, and I said:”NOW I know what love really is!” Thank you for reminding me of these joyful moments of blessing…I need it now!
This Christmas, I’ve been learning, through the beautiful songs of Mary, that we each DO actually give birth to the Savior, as we ask Him into our hearts, to live in us, and commit each moment to living for Him, in love…
I thank you too, Dee, your christmas letter warmed my heart!
Dee
I too thank you for your Christmas letter. Seeing the answer to prayers for your granddaughters and ministry to my sisters in prison was thrilling. Now when I pray for women in prison I can have their faces before me.
I’m still contemplating the song and want to save my response to number one for last. This morning I want to ponder Luci’s phrase ‘Eternity walled in a womb’.
In Scripture, the word eternity is used only once. It is located in Isaiah 57:15, “For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” (NKJV)
Before the Trinity laid the foundation of the earth, Jesus had already consented to be the perfect Lamb of sacrifice. The One who has no beginning, end, or limits, cloaked himself in the very flesh he created. Leaving eternity, Jesus stepped into time, which is defined biblically as the period between two eternities, and lived within the ‘city walls’ of Mary’s womb. It hit me as I was writing the verse from Isaiah that the First Advent was the beginning of revival. My concordance tells me that revival means the renewed zeal to obey God. It’s not a meeting twice a year for a few days. It’s a daily gift from our MIGHTY GOD.
In his book All the Divine Names and Titles in the Bible, Herbet Lockyer asks the question, ‘Have we learned how to place over against our changing earthly pilgrimage the secure attachment of eternity?’ He then states, “the eternity of God is the rock on which faith can repose in view of the mutability of man.”
This finite mind of mine cannot yet process the whole concept of eternity. Right all I know is eternity is where God lives and one day I will step from time into eternity. I know from Scripture He placed eternity within me the day I was conceived (December 1962). I find it’s pretty cool to know my life began the month we celebrate Jesus’ birth.
Now, I know in the New King James Version the word eternity is also found in Ecclesisastes 3:11. However, in the original King James Version, the translators used the word world in this verse instead of eternity. I dug into the Hebrew and found that the Hebrew word used for world is olam which means concealed, eternal. God is EL OLAM-the Eternal One.
Dee, my deep-sea fishing captain, I think you have taken us to the deepest waters of God’s vast Sea of Knowledge. Thank you Luci for sharing the words God gave you with us.
Tammy, excellent response and contemplation on the word eternity..
Yes!
If you aren’t on my e-mail list, you can see my Christmas letter to each of you under news. Merry Christmas!
Dee, I thank you also for your Christmas ‘card’. I especially loved how you shared thoughts about how you can see your circumstances ‘through God’ (I learned that in BSF :o] The opposite of looking at God through our circumstances)
I love being able to take these questions after work when I am so tired. I can’t seem to focus on reading but I can just contemplate. It is the best thing I have ever done to unwind when I am tired. The down side of that is that I can sometimes get pretty far out there in my thought process. Hopefully I will be able to keep it in the road. So here goes with #3
A. The Word, stern-sentenced to be nine months dumb
The Word who spoke all of creation into existence-verbally silent. I can in no way understand this. Just because God existed in this baby in utero, was He silent? Was He inactive as God? This is just too wonderful for me to begin to understand. It is more than the finite mind can comprehend. There was a point at which He inhabited just 2 cells…
B. Eternity walled in a womb
C. His cool immensity of splendor small-folded in a dim small female space
How did He fit? I wonder if I might come closer to understanding this if I contemplate how man is made in God’s image than if I try to think of the immensity of God. As noted in B, how can eternity be contained in human frame? I can’t at the moment back up my musing with scripture but I am thinking and want to be corrected if wrong. Man was created as an eternal being. In that way he is like God. He will endure for eternity but he does not inhabit eternity as God does. So is it possible that Jesus remained eternal and fully God while He ceased to inhabit eternity? He did die and God the Father resurrected Him. What do you all think?
Anne — your musings are aways a blessing to me.
Thank you Dee. Thanks for listening.
Anne, in answer to your question..
“So is it possible that Jesus remained eternal and fully God while He ceased to inhabit eternity? He did die and God the Father resurrected Him. What do you all think?”
My answer is yes.. ;P I do think He remained eternal and fully God and he never ceased inhabiting eternity. Wow, to ponder on the power, majesty and yet the humble nature of God who made himself a helpless baby dependent on Mary for his sustenance in the womb and out of the womb..Wow.. Thanks for bringing us to this place Anne..
I’ve begun memorizing this poem of Luci’s to help me stay focused this season. Here’s the first part:
After the white hot beam of annunciation
fused heaven with dark earth
Its searing sharply focused light went out for a while
Eclipsed in amniotic gloom
His cool immensity of splendor, His universal grace
small-folded in a warm dim female space
The Word stern-sentenced to be nine months dumb
Eternity walled in a womb
Until the next enormity…
(To be continued)
Keep contemplating sisters. I know Chirstmas gets crazy — especially these last two weeks –so I’m praying for you and for myself.
Lord, I know that we can show your love through gift-giving, wrapping, cooking — but let our minds be stayed on You, and being Your love, and on Your greatness and sacrifice. Be with each woman on this blog and with me, dear Lord.
In Jesus Name
Dee,
I loved how you took the song Mary Did You Know and “made it your own”, like we did with the Psalms, using the words as a springboard for your own dialogue with God! Your thoughts were beautifully expressed.
So good to be reminded to do that, especially now. I am finding my mind filled with a constant stream of thoughts and “to-do’s”, probably alot of which are not really all that important. And the kids’ schedules don’t slow down before Christmas, either, with two of them in the thick of swim season now. I just saw that my son has a swim meet on his birthday this year, Dec. 29th! That brought back memories of when he was young, that was a day for a trip to a park we named the “Owl Park”, because they kept an injured owl there in an outdoor caged-in area. Even if we were wading through snow, we always went there on his birthday.
And memories of reading Christmas stories to the boys and their baby sister while the fire was going in the fireplace, and making cookies and decorating them, and so much more. Thankfully my ten year old daughter still likes to do these things! I don’t think my sons even notice the tree is up! Ryan is in school all day, has swim practice from 4-6pm, comes home, eats, and heads to his room for homework, and then in bed early cause he’s up at 5am for morning swim practice.
How I long for those simpler days!
Thanks for helping us to remember to slow down and ponder.
Thank you Susan. The picture of reading Christmas stories by the fire…ahhh
And Owl park…:-)
Hi ladies!! I just finished putting the testimony I gave on the radio show “Words to Live By” on You Tube and wanted to share it with you all.. 🙂 This was done a long time ago, back in 2001. If you view it, I apologize for the pictures.. I didn’t have a lot of time so I put up whatever I had on file and hope in the future I can be more detailed with more pictures to put up when I have more time. I am not a video tech kind of person.. It is in three parts so it is on three videos I made. :0) I want to share how Jesus rescued me from the muck and mire and brought me under His wings forever!! :0)
Here are the links:
part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_10IYQ7yIQ
part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiA07ZX1h1A
Part 3: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5HFcDmHLDU
Here is another link for Part 2… I slightly edited it.. Just an F.Y.I. you won’t be able to pull up the link for part 2 above anymore..
Here is the new link for it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4mlAYBkqTI
Rebecca, thank you for sharing that with us, because it helps me to know you better and I feel so blessed to be a sister in the Lord with you!
Joyce, you are so kind! I am blessed to be a sister in the Lord with you!
Rebecca, thanks so much for sharing your testimony. What a picture of God’s faithfulness and how He is sovereign over all things. I am so encouraged as I pray for the lost.
Anne, Yes and when I heard Dee was doing a prison ministry my heart jumped in me.. I know there are ministries to women in prison, but what a privilege for those women to experience God’s power in Dee’s ministry in their lives.. I know He was moving..
Also, when I heard Sara Groves on her live prison Christmas tour doing her concert live in prison..You can hear the inmates in the background.. There is A LOT Of echoing noise which makes it obvious it is in a prison..It is hard to explain how I felt when I heard it..the Gospel she so eloquently pours out in her songs..It was an example of where God wants our feet to tread and reminded me too of the lost and how in a lot of ways over the years I have forgotten..How easy it is to forget..Had my brother given up on me and left me to my foolishness in the darkness..Had he forgotten me..hmmm…Praise God he didn’t! 🙂
That will be my prayer for us. God is teaching us so many wonderful things and it is so easy to look at Him, then look away and forget. May He bring to remembrance every morsel of truth at the appropriate time.
Amen! I agree with this good prayer.
4. What do you think Mary really understood? Why do you think that? (Give Scripture references if possible.)
* I think Mary knew that she was carrying God’s son Luke 1:31-32, and I think she knew Jesus was God as well because Elizabeth said in Luke 1:43 “But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
I haven’t really thought about this before as to what she really understood as to the reason Jesus came..I think she knew he was going to be the messiah, but in Jewish terms.. I wonder if she really knew while pregnant with Jesus that He came to redeem us all. That He was going to be the savior of the world.. I could be wrong though and missing something here..
Rebecca — thanks for sharing your wonderful video!
I’m so glad you have begun to turn the group toward pondering what Mary knew…
Dee, Thanks, but really I think I rabbit trailed here posting the video..:) Sorry! Yes..There is still so much there to ponder in regard to what Mary knew and I really want to hear other’s responses to this.. :0)
Rebecca,
I was really blessed to watch and hear your testimony on YouTube. I’ve listened to that program, Words to Live By, several times.
I love the picture you put on there of the woman on the ground, and Jesus is reaching His hand out to her to help her up. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. I am also moved by your words, “Had my brother given up on me….”
But to think, Rebecca, that before the foundation of the world was laid, God had already chosen you and He would bring you to Himself and use your brother to accomplish that!
Now I am going to lay out a question here…. Does anyone ever struggle with (even though you are a Christian) with feeling that your life has meaning and purpose, or struggle to find what is your purpose in life?
Susan, Yes I thought that as well..That even if my brother had forgotten me, God would have continued drawing me to Him. Great point and so True sis! I am also humbled as I know you are too that He has given us the privilege to be His ambassadors, to be the ones He has chosen to spread the good news of Jesus Christ by our lives and our words!! :0)
Every time I finish a book I wonder if now my ministry and purpose is over…so, yes. I wonder what I will do when people stop asking me to speak.
And then I talk to my soul and tell her to trust, to take a step at a time, for God has been faithful in the past and will continue to be.
But, yes, Susan.
Susan
I’m currently reading PATHWAY TO PURPOSE FOR WOMEN by Katie Brazelton who was at the time she wrote the book, Women’s Bible Study Director, Saddleback Church.
I highly recommend it to you. I believe it would answer alot of your questions.
Personally, I have struggled with what my ultimate purpose in God’s kingdom is. I know he is leading me toward that purpose but sometimes I wish he would put up a billboard up along the way that says ‘Tammy this is the specific thing you are going to do for me’. I think he doesn’t do things like that because then I would miss the journey to my destination and he knows one day at a time is all I can handle.
Thank you all for sharing honestly.
3. Meditate on these phrases from Luci Shaw’s poem of the incarnation – share your thoughts.
The Word, stern sentenced to be nine months dumb
Eternity walled in a womb
His cool immensity of splendor small-folded in a dim small female space
Ok, my first thoughts about this are the contrast Luci Shaw is making between God, the Word, eternal, immense in His splendor, and being “sentenced” to be silent, walled-in, in a dim, small, female space. It sounds very unpleasant. I don’t agree with it, or I’m seeing it in a different way. (Sorry, Luci!)
God made Jesus to be in every way like us, except without sin, and He didn’t just drop down to earth a fully grown man, but He began to take on human form in an act of conception done by the Holy Spirit; being formed just as we were in our mothers’ wombs.
David wrote in the Psalms how God knit him together in his mother’s womb, and how he was fearfully and wonderfully made. I don’t think those nine months were silent; and I think that womb was not a dim small space – it was a holy place, where creation was taking place.
Not that Jesus was being created for the first time, but God was forming His body and determining the color of His eyes, and the color of His hair; deciding what His smile would look like…giving flesh and blood and bone and muscle to the Word who was with God in the beginning! Mary’s womb became a temple to house, for nine months, the Living Son of God. It is mind-boggling to think and ponder on this.
Just finished listening to Revive Our Hearts past program; Nancy Leigh DeMoss is going through the hymn O Come O Come Emmanuel, and digging into the meanings of all the names for Christ.
You can listen on reviveourhearts.com and go to past programs; it aired 12/9 and 12/10. It’s really good!
Please ponder “how much did Mary know?”
And then begin to share your take-a-ways for the week.
Susan, I wrote a response to your question then erased it..Not sure if I should have gone in that direction with it.
My take away this week is Mary’s heart..As I studied more on Mary this week her heart toward God astounded me..I also see why certain denominations revere her so much..She exemplified true humility and her trust in what God was going to do in and through her even though He didn’t map it all out for her from the beginning really stuck with me.. God didn’t show her the future yet she humbly obeyed. That is my take a way so far this week.. I have learned a lot from Mary and hope to learn more today if there are more responses in regard to this question. 🙂
Like this Rebecca. Luci Shaw says we have put Mary in an “evangelical limbo,” moving so far to the other side we have forgotten her.
Dee, EXACTLY.. This study brought that to light..How come we emphasize the study of the life of so many other great people of God, but tend to leave Mary out..Here we have Mary..the one ‘favored by God’, the one who God entrusted and favored to be His mother on Earth and there isn’t much we can learn from her faith, her life? Perhaps it was because it was too close to Catholicism and some evangelical denominations really try to stay away from that? I don’t know, but it is a shame. Thankfully, God has opened our eyes here..
Dee, I just found this…I am not sure what the source is, but so far in reading it, it looks like a somewhat realistic review of Mary and the reality of when she carried Jesus..it is really good so far:
http://www.cptryon.org/compassion/mary/mother.html
I found the link you posted to be very interesting Rebecca. Thank you for sharing.
Deb, yeah it didn’t really turn out in the end to be as detailed as I thought it would be. Not sure who the writer is..
1. “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” are the words I have been meditating on this week. The enemy of my soul kept me blinded to the truth of God’s word until God removed the veil. I stopped up my ears to instruction, refused to heed warning, and ended up in a dead situation. My soul was crippled for, what I thought would be, the rest of my life. Worst of all, my voice was silenced by abuse. BUT, one day, Jesus came to me and asked me did I really want to be made well. I didn’t hesitate to say yes for, like the lame man by the pool of Siloam, I had been waiting for years to be free of my soul diseases. Now, for the rest of my days, I get to tell what the Lord has done for me.
4. It occurred to me this week that Mary must have been well taught the OT prophecies concerning the Messiah. Reading through her song in Luke 1:47-55, I found (with the help of my study bible) she made references to the books of Genesis, Psalms, and Isaiah. I wonder if, after she gave birth, did she realize she had just fulfilled Micah 5:2, ‘But you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to Me the One to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.’ When Gabriel told Mary she was gong to give birth to the Messiah did she later ponder the words of Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” After Jesus began his public ministry did she consider the words of Psalm 78:2 “I will open my mouth in a parable..” Isaiah 53:3 told her the Messiah would be despised and rejected by men. On and on we could go. What she did know she pondered and thought upon, I’m sure, every day of her life.
5. My take-away this week is the comfort this song brought to me as I journeyed through this past week. It was as if all hell broke loose against me seeking to just annoy me through the ‘momentary troubles’ I experienced with a few of my clients. There was a time I would have responded in anger but instead I found myself speaking to my soul the words of Paul in Romans 8:18, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” Daily I would come here to the ‘oasis and get a drink of refreshment’ and return to the ‘wrestling mat’.
Thank you for your words, Tammy. They bring refreshment to my soul.
Tammy, Again, excellent job..I hadn’t thought about that.. New things for me to ponder.. I also LOVED your take a way and smiled when you said this: “Daily I would come here to the ‘oasis and get a drink of refreshment’ and return to the ‘wrestling mat’.” I loved the way you described our daily battles as a ‘wrestling mat’.. I now have a new phrase to use and more things to ponder on. Thanks!!!!
“Mary, did you know that your baby boy would someday walk on water?”
WE ARE IN A TERRIBLE SNOWSTORM HERE IN WI TODAY AND THE HOPE I HAD TO SPEND A JOY-FILLED DAY (AT LAST) OF CHRISTMAS BAKING WITH MY DAUGHTER HAS BEEN DASHED AS I CAN’T SEE THE ROAD FOR THE SNOW AND MY CAR IS CURRENTLY STUCK IN A SNOWBANK. JESUS, YOU WALKED ON WATER AND BECONKED PETER OUT OF THE BOAT. PLEASE, I FIND MYSELF SINKING AGAIN! I DO THANK YOU FOR KEEPING ME SAFE AS I DARED TO HEAD OUT IN THE STORM, THANK YOU FOR BEING MY EYES TO GUIDE ME BACK THE SHORT DISTANCE TO MY HOME, THANK YOU FOR NOT LETTING MY CAR BE STUCK IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE BUT CLOSE TO HOME. THANK YOU FOR HOLDING OUT YOUR HANDS, REACHING OUT TO ME.
Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new? This child that you’ve delivered will soon deliver you.
JESUS, I LONG TO WAIT IN JOYFUL EXPECTATION OF ADVENT TOO BUT FOR ME THIS ADVENT, THIS SEASON OF WAITING, SEEMS UNENDING. MOMENTS OF JOY ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN. I DIDN’T WANT TO BE MADE NEW, I WAS CONTENT JUST THE WAY I WAS. BUT YOU HAVE COME TO MAKE ME NEW AND TO MAKE ME WHOLE. I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT LOOKS LIKE. HELP ME TO SEE IT. HELP ME TO BE PATIENT AND CONTENT IN THE WAITING. DELIVER ME, LORD! DELIVER ME AND MAKE ME WHOLE.
Mary did you know that your baby boy would give sight to a blind man?
I AM FLAWED LORD AND I DIDN’T SEE IT. HOW COULD I HAVE BEEN SO BLIND? I WANT TO THANK YOU FOR OPENING MY EYES, FOR IT WILL ALLOW ME TO BECOME A BETTER PERSON.
Mary, did you know that your baby boy would calm a storm with his hand?
EVEN NOW LORD, THROUGH THIS LAMENT OF MINE YOU HAVE CALMED THE BITTER STORM WITHIN MY SOUL AND HAVE STILLED THE WATERS, AND I THANK YOU FOR A MOMENT’S PEACE. I AM READY TO CONTINE ON WITH ADVENT, PREPARING AND WAITING EXPECTANTLY FOR YOU. COME LORD JESUS. AMEN.
Perhaps I need to experience that Advent isn’t about me; I need to look outside of my own little world and come into the presence of the Light of the World. Oh what joy, compassion and understanding He brings! There is healing in this place (this Blog). He directs me to look in places I never would have to uncover glimmers of joy this season, though I was certain there were none. It is I who should be bringing a gift to Him, yet daily, if I take time to look outside of my own self, it is He who brings gifts to me.
Deb, That was beautiful! So true..
Deb — you have lived the lament before our eyes. How good to see the Spirit come and shift your perspective.
I do sympathize with having that special day dashed and your car in a snowbank. I believe God is tender toward you.
Thanks for living out the lament before us.