First off, thank you mom, for viewing my blog multiple times to make it appear that more people had read it. You're great at making me feel special :). But in all seriousness, I was humbled by the responses and views that I did get from people. Thank you for encouraging me and for taking the time to read this! I'm still not sure exactly what I'm doing, or where this will go, but hopefully you will all use this to communicate your thoughts and feelings as well! So today, no job again, this weather has put a real damper on sub jobs..maybe that's my hint to find a real job...eh I think I'll ignore that one a little longer. But anyways, so here I sit with my spoiled dog cozy and curled up next to me and time to kill. I had difficulty deciding what to put today because I read two different things that I thought might be good to share. So, first off I apologize that I seem to be unable to make this brief (I'm sure when I have less time, the posts will be less), but for today here are some of my thoughts:
Mary
A couple years ago my dad gave me a book entitled "Tweleve Extraordinary Women" by John MacArhur. It's about twelve different women in the Bible and their faithfulness. I read it pretty faithfully at first, and then it was somehow misplaced from my reading pile (sorry dad). But today, I found where I had left off, and that was on Mary. To be honest, there was a lot of information that kind of bogged me down, but overall it was very interesting. In reflecting, I find it odd that we know very little about the mother of Jesus, our Savior. And yet, on the other hand, I dont' find it odd at all. I think that Mary's life and activity weren't discussed often because her job was to sit back and be the stepping stone for God's amazing plan through His Son. However, I would like to know what that was like to be the mother of our Messiah. What did she think? How did she discipline him? What was her attitude toward him? How did she feel knowing that someday the prophecies would come to fruition, and her precious child would be slain? With the little we do know about her, we do know a few things:
1. She found favor with God. - This tells me that she was living right. She was a good kid, and wanted to live her life according to her faith. Can you imagine finding favor with God? My heart leaps at the idea of this, that we can find favor with our Creator!
2. She accepted her calling. (Luke 1:38) This task put a lot of pressure on Mary because 1. She wasn't married, and 2. Now she's pregnant and Jospeh isn't the father (which is usually not ideal when your engaged). Can you imagine the uncertinanty of this situation? But she chose to trust and obey anyways.
3. She tried a couple of times to tell Jesus what she wanted Him to do, but in the end stepped back and let Him be her Lord. Just like us (although we do it far more often), she thought she could have some say in His plans. (Mark 3:31-35, John 2:3) And he probably graciously smiled and was like "You have no idea, just let me do my thing!" (ok, maybe not exactly like that, but I picture Him with a knowing smile and a kind laugh sometimes yah know?)
4. She followed Him all her days. There are a couple times where she is mentioned being with the disciples, and to me, she was probably one of His biggest devotees. She chose to follow Him, knowing that heartache would be part of the job, which I'm sure was not always easy!
5. She experienced great loss. She stood there at the foot of the cross and watched her precious child take on the sins of the world, and yet she didn't flee. There is no record of her screaming and flailing about at the injustice of it all, she just stood their gracefully as she witnessed the death of her own Son!
6. She was taken care of. On the cross Jesus called out to her and told John to behold his mother. MacArthur pointed out that this was Jesus' way of providing a caregiver for her. He recognized her tender relationship to himself, and reassured her in that moment, that although her job with Him was through, that she would not be left alone.
In reflecting on all of this, I think that although little is recorded about her, we know a lot about her character and the type of faith she had. You may be saying, as I did to myself : Well she was the mother of Jesus, angels talked to her, she could endure all of this because she got to see Him firsthand. I thought that too, but then I remembered that she was human too. Although we know the rest of the story, there were long periods where nothing happened in Jesus' life. Mary had grown up on the Old Testament, and I'm sure knew of the prophecies, but I doubt that made it any easier for her to be able to trust and let go. I was encouraged to know that someone even as close as Jesus' mother experienced life as we do, and yet she remained faithful til the end. Oh how glorious to know that through it all He is moving, and working, and he provides for us still! Have a blessed day!
P.S. I think that's enough for today, I'll save my other clip for later.
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