As I head full speed into the 2006 Christmas season, I feel like I am still standing at the starting line, looking around - not sure what to think or where to go. My Christmas theme of I Believe In Yesterday is about the only thing that feels like home.
What I do know about this yesterday thing is that I have put all my eggs in one basket. To me, it is the perspective of what Jesus did for me some 2000 years ago and not what is being reported today on CNN. I have to look back to go forward.
So the thoughts that are going thru my mind have had a lot to do with Mary the last few days. Everything we do from now until Dec 25 is because a teenage girl said yes. We will never really know what she was thinking - wish she had kept a journal. Maybe it would have read something like this... From Evelyn Bence's, Mary's Journal.
"What have I done to deserve this?
Blessed among women. Chosen.
My womb will bear...the promise...the king.
I believe the man I saw, the words I heard."
Mary would conceive a child without being with a man. What society would that play favorably in? This is swimming uphill without a paddle. It would not only change her world but her fiancee too. This was not his child. Mary was the one who received the visit - Joseph had to hear about it second-hand. How would that play with your man?
" I've had gotten a good man from the Lord.
Yesterday I was grateful for merely a husband and right to be. Today how can I be so fickle - to mourn the wedding celebration I have been planning for so long? Since memory was born. Since I first smelled the fragrance of Cousin Leah's bridal joy."
Mary's Story will lead us to a manger which will lead us to a cross. It's all about Yesterday. If Mary had only had Paul McCartney's lyrics on her rockPOD, it might have proved soothing.
Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away
Now it looks as though they're here to stay
Oh, I believe in Yesterday...
Maybe not.
Maybe it was just the faith of a teenage girl, ready to do what was asked
Maybe she didn't give the consequences a thought...or maybe she did and said yes anyway.
" I was spared no pain but is seemed of little consequence once the breath filled his lungs.
And then near dawn, shepherds at the door, visited by heavenly being, one, then a skyfull, announcing our news: the Anointed One, born, wrapped and in a manger. Rejoice. Praise the Most High"
Thank you Mary for showing us the way of faith. A faith that can be if we are willing. Whatever we are asked to do - can be done. Not wrapped up nice and neat with a bow. Christmas is Easter's, Yesterday. Yesterday never stands alone...
