Day 7 of Having a "Mary" Christmas in a Martha World
Luke 2:1-7, Psalm 105:4, Psalm 95: 8-9, Revelation 2:2-5, Luke 6:46-49
These days seem to be pretty stressful. If we're the ones that are not stressed we can easily think of someone who is. We all have different situations that stress us out and can weigh us down. Maybe not enough money to get the essentials let alone gifts, not being able to see family members, maybe we're angry at certain people, stress from work, kids, friends, husband, accidents, a death of a loved one. All of these things can lead us to anger, shame, fear, indifference, wanting to give up. All these things can come out while were impatiently waiting in line at the grocery store, driving and someone cuts us off, or we cut someone else off, yelling at loved ones. Seeing other people who look like they have their lives together doesn’t help either. Nonetheless, we are all on a journey: a spiritual journey - which touches the physical journey, we are on everyday. We have been going through this journey with the Lord, trying to get closer to him but there are a lot of distractions right now.
Mary chose to go to Bethlehem. She was pregnant. Others thought she was an unfaithful woman because she becomes pregnant out of wedlock. There could have been a temptation there to be afraid of what people thought of her. She could have been afraid of Joseph being angry and wanting her stoned. But she prayed and stayed faithful to God because she knew he had a plan. She didn’t know the outcome but she had hope. She could have chosen not to go to Bethlehem for a variety of reasons. She could have wanted to stay back for the health of baby Jesus. It was a long journey and it wasn’t comfortable. It was on a donkey. She had some pretty good excuses not to go, since she was carrying the savior of the world in her womb and all.
But she chose to go on this journey with her husband. But more, she trusted God. There were a lot of unanswered questions and she didn’t know what was going to happen but she let her faith and trust in God guide her when she couldn’t see the road ahead. Even Mary was not kept from being stressed out and put in difficult situations where she didn’t know the outcome. But its how she responded to those situations which is an example for us.
Sisters, God will not leave us in times of stress. In times when we don’t have all of the answers but know the Lord is still calling us to go in a direction we didn’t see coming. To go on a road that we can t see the end to. It is a challenge to say yes to Jesus and trust but its not impossible. We can, not only go on this road that the Lord is leading us on, but recognize Him in every aspect of it. This is what our faith is about. Trusting God and knowing we are not alone in our times of distress. Even in distress we can cry out to the Lord and tell him that. (Psalm 69) We can hope, we can go, step by step, a little every day. There is a saying in Italian: “Piccoli Passi Possibile, small steps can.” We have been given the strength to keep going, to hope. Let us use this hope to continue on this journey with God.
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