So proud of my girl. She choreographed and danced this morning to “Noel” by Lauren Daigle. My phone won’t allow me to post video😭. But these photos were some of my favorite moments.
*Come and see what God has done*
Even in the broken places, the tender ones that hurt badly, there is still hope and promise for those who follow Him.
Noel: a shout of joy. The story of amazing Love, given for us.💕❤️
For a time, our family would light candles every night at dinner. The kids would all want the turn of lighting the candles or blowing them out.
As the candles were lit, I would ask, “Why do we light these candles?”
And they would respond, “Because Jesus is the light of the world!”
And I would follow, “And every time we light a candle in the darkness, we remember, and we consider Jesus.”
This was special and sweet and fun, until one child (who shall remain nameless), lit a paper napkin on fire, dropped the napkin–which burned a hole in the tablecloth–all in the 20 seconds it took me to clear a dish from the table to the kitchen.🤣🤣🤣🤣
The “Magnificant”, or “Mary’s Song”, has long been a special passage of Scripture to me:
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.
For He who is mighty has done great things for me,
And holy is His name.
And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm;
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
And exalted the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
And the rich He has sent away empty.
He has helped His servant Israel,
In remembrance of His mercy,
As He spoke to our fathers,
To Abraham, and to his seed forever.”
Luke 1:46-55
These words, poetic and rich in reverence and submission, full of confidence in God’s power and might…..
Each verse richly steeped in Israel’s history and a direct quotation from Old Testament Scripture….
But remember, young Jewish girls at this time were educated at home, and that education centered more around the preparation needed to fulfill the commandments–dietary restrictions, necessary provisions for Sabbath observation and feasts….
So even this beautiful song that rises up out of the heart of a young Jewish woman is a miraculous beginning of sorts. How inspiring, that the very praise that would emanate from a heart chosen to be “blessed and highly favored” would radiate the story of the God of Israel, the one who remembered his covenant with Abraham, who helped his servant Israel, and has remembered His maidservant Mary. Each word, steeped–rooted, even–in the Old Testament words….
Her words, rooted in His.
This is her song of praise.
This song is Mary’s great declaration of faith, but often Mary’s great faith is applauded here alone–as she accepted the divine and holy beginning of a supernatural work begun in her.
Don’t we do that, though? We stretch our minds and our hearts and we believe that what God is beginning in us is supernatural.
We start in the miraculous and the supernatural, we feel excited, and praise rises from our souls…..
And then. Things get hard. Life bears without yield on our faith and our resolve and we find ourselves in places we never thought possible.
I started thinking about Mary, chosen for such a great honor, but also realizing that she was chosen to watch her child die.
And while my momma heart broke with Mary’s, it caused me to go back, to look at what the angel said to her. Because if the words of God’s story emanated from a heart that never formally studied those words, then God must have planted just what Mary needed in her heart as the angel spoke.
“Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said, ‘Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!’
But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was.
Then the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.’
Then Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I do not know a man?’
And the angel answered and said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible.’
Then Mary said, ‘Behold the maidservant is the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her.”
Luke 1:26-38
The great faith that beckons to me in this season comes from the angel’s words to Mary.
But if we look at a few pictures of Mary’s life, I believe we see that her great faith was not just in believing that what was begun in her was miraculous and supernatural, but it was believing God’s declaration and message to her when her circumstances seemed to say otherwise.
Let’s first look at immediately after the angel left her. Right away, she knows that she will be shunned and despised for appearing to be pregnant out of wedlock. Her life was even in jeopardy.
How can she be blessed and highly favored when she is cast out and rejected by her community?
I am amazed, that Mary could hold onto the identity given to her by God, blessed and highly favored, when no one around her seemed to support it.
But she wasn’t alone. Mary went to her cousin Elizabeth–someone who would share the supernatural perspective with her, someone who would believe the identity God had given her, one who would rejoice in God’s promises with her.
“Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. And it happened that when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.”
Luke 1:39-45
Elizabeth affirmed Mary’s identity, and encouraged her that God’s promises would be fulfilled!
Even one person who believes in our God-given identity can give us the grace and strength to stand within a community that doubts it.
If we look a little further ahead in Mary’s journey, we come to the time of Jesus’ birth. I can only imagine how it must have challenged Mary, how she must have wondered, “How can I be blessed and highly favored if there is no place for me, and I must give birth to the Son of God in a stable??”
And yet, here again, we see that Mary is not alone. God partnered her with Joseph, who also heard from heaven by a visit from an angel. She needed someone else who could stand with her in her identity as blessed, and who also would believe the promises of God.
One person to stand beside you is enough, even when you feel like there is no place where you fit in.
As we move ahead in Mary’s life, we see that Joseph is never mentioned in the adult life of Jesus. Biblical and cultural tradition would suggest that Joseph had died. Oh, how it must have challenged her again to think, “If I am blessed and highly favored, how could I lose the only other earthly person who heard from an angel that what was conceived in me was from God?”
And yet Mary is never mentioned alone. She is mentioned with the siblings of Jesus, and later on, with other women whose lives had been radically transformed by Jesus. At the cross we see her with Mary Magdalene (from whom Jesus had earlier cast out seven demons).
Standing with those who have been radically transformed, those who are wholly devoted to following him, is necessary when facing grief and loss.
And finally, at the cross. Mary is the only earthly person who was present at both Jesus’ birth and his death–rightfully so, as his mother.
But watching this brutal scene must have attacked every single word the angel declared to her in his visit decades before.
Blessed and highly favored: how can that be as I watch my child suffer and die?
Do not yield to your fear: how can I not, when my worst fears are being lived out in front of me?
A Kingdom that would not end: but how can that be, as I watch the King breathe His last?
You see, in this season, the great faith that beckons to me from the depths of Mary’s being was that she believed that she was blessed and highly favored even when circumstances seemed to say otherwise. She believed the promises of God, even when they seemed impossible and cut off.
But Mary was not alone. Even here, at the cross, where her heart must have broken at the thought of believing the angel’s words in this moment….Jesus entrusted her to “the disciple whom He loved”. He assigned His beloved, highly favored one to His beloved disciple.
In the moments of our greatest pain and deepest loss, Jesus is there, offering provision even within the pain.
You see, Mary went before us in FAITH, believing her identity and the promise of God even when it seemed impossible.
So if you are struggling to believe that you are blessed and highly favored in the midst of your current circumstances,
Or if you’re struggling to believe the promises of God,
You are not alone.
That’s why we need each other.
That’s why we need to light candles in the dark and remember Jesus and the promises of God.
Mary went before us in FAITH,
But she also went before us in HOPE.
She was there, in the upper room, with Jesus’ brothers, praying in one accord.
She saw the beginning of the Kingdom that would not end.
She endured the night, and saw the joy of the morning.
We often think of “sharing our faith” as telling someone else about Jesus.
But in this moment, let’s take the candle light of our faith, and let’s share it with someone else.
What identity are you having trouble believing today?
What promise of God are you having trouble believing?
Let’s take the flame of Mary’s faith, and let her song become our song as we remember the angel’s words:
You are blessed and highly favored.
Do not yield to your fear.
God’s promises are for YOU.
It is Christ in us that enables us to believe His promises.
And when my flame flickers, and I’m feeling especially weary, I will go to those who will affirm my identity and God’s promises. I will walk with those who listen to God’s Word and obey it even when it is difficult. And I will accept the provision of Jesus….because His birth, His life, His death, and His resurrection are all reminders that He will never leave me alone.
And that is worth lighting a candle for every night.❤️🙌🏻
The Need for Hope 