Now the rest of us moms have our new babies and look at them, and then for a small moment we panic a little with the thought of, "for the next 18 years I had better get this right!" Just think of how Mary must have felt. She was holding God's Son for crying out loud. She not only had to get this right, she had to get this perfect!! No pressure Mary, but from this day forward, you will not raise your voice to Jesus. You will not belittle him in any way, shape, or form. You will not be talking to your neighbor while "shushing" Jesus. You will not say to him, "you better listen to me when I am talking to you!!" When Jesus talks, YOU listen! When you go to town on your camel, you will not wave your hand violently behind you in hopes to at least hit his foot so that Jesus will stop distracting you from rush hour traffic. And whatever you do Mary, you will not put Jesus in timeout.....well...because nobody puts Jesus in a corner!
You and I get a private room to have our babies in. We have the television in the rooms to keep our husbands occupied for the "boring part" of labor. If your husband was like mine then he slept while the nurses took excellent care of you. Not Mary though, she is in a barn surrounded by animals and her husband, who if there was a biblical "Maury" back then would be declared, "not the father!" But he would still be the one chosen to be by her side to help bring this amazing baby into the world. Every husbands worst nightmare right?? I don't know about you but the first thing my husband said was, "I just hope that I don't have to deliver this baby on the side of the road!! Just CROSS YOUR LEGS OKAY!!"
Remember that moment when your baby was born and you realized that God chose you. You were perfect for them and they were perfect for you. Then the first thing you did was take a family "selfie" and put it on Facebook to let everyone know that your baby had finally come! You wanted the world to see just how perfect this child was. You wanted to remember that moment for the rest of your life. You wanted the world to celebrate with you. And if at all possible, you would love to have had time stand still so that this moment would last forever. I imagine Mary was feeling just a little down. She was far away from home, in a barn. She can't call her mom and talk to her. She can't send her a quick picture on her cell phone. When Mary heard that knock on the door I can imagine that she was a little confused. Putting myself in her sandals I would first say to my husband, "Man I hope that's a pizza!! " When the shepherds entered I can imagine she was more confused wondering, "who are these men, and what do they want??" They introduced themselves and they told her how God himself opened up the heavens and the angels announced the birth of Jesus. Then God placed a star in the sky for them so that they would be able to follow it and find Jesus. God was a proud father. He wanted the world to know that His son was finally here. The one that was going to save them all had finally arrived. When Mary heard this story of how the birth had been announced and how a star had been placed over them...."she treasured up all of these things and pondered them in her heart."Every year on my birthday my Mom would tell the same old story..... "when we brought you home from the hospital there was a huge storm and the electric went out. The thunder was so loud and you slept through the whole thing" I imagine Mary told Jesus about the story of his birth every year on his birthday too.
I constantly make mistakes as a mother. Everyday I find myself apologizing to God because I feel that I have let Him down in some way. He chose me and I failed him. But that is why he chose Mary long ago. She was the perfect fit to be Jesus' mother so that when I became a mom I would have the grace that I needed for the endless amount of mistakes that I was going to make.
So, today I am grateful that I was not chosen to be Jesus' mom because if I was, the world would be in trouble. I would have definitely messed that one up.......However, today was the day I could have really used a son that could turn water into wine .......
