What an awesome
responsibility. To be chosen from billions of women who would fill up the
earth. To be chosen to be the mother of The Christ. How consistent must have
been her life. How devoted to a life of relationship and service.
And she continued
to “ponder those things in her heart” throughout Christ’ childhood,
adolescence, and young adulthood. How entirely overwhelmed with grief, as she
stood at the foot of His Destiny. The Cross.
But she was
not, and is not, and never shall be “The
Mother of God.” (And I love my Catholic friends). She was not with Christ
from the beginning. She was not present during the creation of the worlds.
While she was truly the mother of that flesh and blood human being named
“Jesus,” she had nothing whatever to do with the presence of that Divine Spirit
within Him.
Mary was a
sinner that needed a Saviour. She was, no doubt, such a willing handmaiden of
The Lord. But she was, and is, and ever will be as human as you or I.
And though she
is depicted as The Eternal Virgin, we know that she participated in a conjugal
relationship with Joseph, her husband; of which several children were born,
half-siblings of The Lord.
And we know
that Mary, Christ’ mother, was in attendance with all those others who gathered
together on the day of Pentecost. And though this is the last known reference
to her being alive in the scriptures, we can easily surmise that she died a
natural death, and was buried.
Now there’s
nothing essentially Divine about a human being who needed a Saviour, as badly
as you and I do, who lived out a conjugal life with a husband, who tarried on the
day of Pentecost in order to receive the Holy Spirit, and who died a death
common to any other human being.
Mary was all so human, though all so faithful.
By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "Unconventional Devotions" Copyright 2005
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