Mary, What Did You Know?

http://youtu.be/XiaZYZor6vI

"Mary Did You Know" by Mark Lowry is my favorite Christmas song.  I love the word picture drawn by the words of this moving song.

However, someone once told me that good songs or hymns don't necessarily make for good theology.  Just look at "We Three Kings."  Just because there are only three named in Scripture does not mean there were ONLY three.  So I decided to look into just what Mary was told and what she did know.

In Mt. 1:18 she is told by Gabriel that she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit.  This is also repeated in Luke 1:26.  Luke, however, goes into more detail about this conversation.  He tells Mary that He will be called the Son of the Most High.  In verse 35 she is told that the Holy Spirit will come upon here and the power of the Most High will overshadow her and He is to be called the Son of God. 

So it is reasonable to assume that she knew that when she kissed her little baby, she kissed the face of God.  It is also safe to assume from her conversations with Gabriel that she knew that her baby boy was Lord of all creation and that he would one day rule the nations because Joseph was of the house of David.  Even further, in Luke 1:43 Elizabeth (Mary's cousin) asks, "'Why am I so honored that the mother of my Lord should visit me?'"

She also knew that he was capable of the miraculous.  Remember the wedding at Cana?  Mary did not hesitate to ask Jesus to make more wine for the wedding.  Even though Jesus objected, she informed the servants to do whatever He asked of them.

She may not have known what specific miracles He would perform, but she was aware of His ability to do them.  So, yes, in a sense she "knew" about all the miracles mentioned in the song.

Did she know that her baby boy would save our sons and daughter, make her new and deliver her?  Yes, again, she knew.  In Matthew 1:20-23 the angel of the Lord (predominately believed to be the preincarnate Christ) tells Joseph that His name is to be Jesus for He will save his people from their sins.  I am sure Joseph shared this piece of information with Mary even though the Bible is silent on that matter.

Even though we are told by Scripture that "Mary kept all these things in her heart and thought about them often" (Luke 2:19) Mary was not the only one who knew these things.  Zechariah knew.  He knew that his son was going to be the forerunner of the Son of God.  Zechariah also knew that Jesus was to be the fulfillment of God's covenant with Israel.  As I have already mentioned, Elizabeth knew. The shepherds knew as well as the wise men.

So Mary did know that when she held her sleeping baby he was the great I AM.  Does that ruin the song for me.  No, no, a thousand times "No".  "Why?" you may ask.  Because I know that there was much that Mary did not know and I am sure she wondered about.  Even though it is fairly certain that Mary knew some of the things in the song and in the rest of her life, she did not know the specifics and I feel certain that she did not know that her son was "heaven's perfect Lamb."  For if she had, like any other mother, she would have tried to interfere with the completion of God's plan.  What mother wants to know that her baby was born to die on a cross to save the world?  So the song is still in that sense, a great song. 

Here I Am

"Now it came about after these things, that God tested Abraham, and said to him, 'Abraham!' And he said, 'Here I am.'" (Gen. 22:1)  "When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush, and said, 'Moses, Moses!' And he said, 'Here I am." (Ex. 3:4 New American Standard Version)

"Here I am."  Those words began to haunt me as I studied my Sunday school lesson this week.  God has been reminding me in soooooo many different ways that by ignoring this blog, I am being disobedient to Him.  There have been pastor's sermons, songs, Sunday school lessons, even an impulsive comment from a friend.  He even "poked" me through the devotional posts by a friend on Facebook. 

Oh, I had all kind of excuses.  "I don't have time. You know, God, it takes one hour to do a post properly and I have a house to clean, dogs to take care of, a half hour of exercise to do every day.  Not to mention laundry, dusting, vacuuming, cooking.....  And now with Christmas coming, there are parties, ceremonies, performances, basketball games, gifts to buy and wrap, and more cooking...."

The more I tried to get out of doing what God wanted, the lamer the excuses became.  Then came the lesson I had to teach yesterday because our regular Sunday school teacher had had cataract surgery and I am the class substitute teacher.  The passage?  Genesis 22: 1-13. 

In just 13 verses, Abraham says TWICE, "Here I am." So today I searched the phrase "here I am" through the whole Bible and I was surprised at what I found.  In Genesis 31:11 and 46:2, Jacob tells the LORD, "Here I am."  In Exodus 3:4, Moses tells the LORD, "Here I am."  In I Samuel 3:16 and 12:3, Samuel responds to God, "Here I am."  Isaiah has the same response in Isaiah 6:8.  God responds to Israel, "Here I am." in Isaiah 52:6 and 65:1.  Even Ananias, when called by God to go and lay hands on that murderer Paul, responded to God's call in Acts 9:10, "Here I am."

So that begs the question, "Where am I?"  All the reasons (excuses) in the world do not wipe away my disobedience to God's call. 

God wants my total obedience, body, soul, mind and spirit.  A pastor once taught me that obedience is doing the right thing with the right attitude at the right time. 

This is my time to be obedient.  Okay, Lord, I think I have it this time.  Here I am.