For This House
Every Season. Every Space. All for Him.
Every Season. Every Space. All for Him.
This Christmas, I am six months pregnant with our second baby boy.
Maybe it’s knowing that I’m carrying another baby boy as I watch our 2.5-year-old son grow and learn every day, but I find myself leaning more and more into Mary’s story and trying to “feel all the feels” that she must have experienced.
Although I’ve got three months to go yet, I’m already comparing my own body consciousness as this baby develops and requires more of me to the personal and social anxieties Mary must have felt in her very unique situation of immaculate conception.
Through all this, the Christmas story is coming to life for me in a whole new way because I’m walking a mile in her shoes, if you will.
Mary and Joseph were married quietly so they didn’t attract the extra attention of the public regarding the timing of Mary’s immaculate pregnancy.
Have you ever planned a wedding? Do you recall all the social, societal, and familial norms that you have to consider? Things were different back then of course, but in some ways much, much more difficult to sway from the status quo… in a life-or-death sort of way. 🫣
There are so many changes that happen during pregnancy, and it looks different for every woman, but just imagine Mary experiencing the worst of what you’ve felt yourself or heard friends express about their worst pregnancy symptoms.
Does it bring Mary to life in your mind a little more? She went through those too, no doubt.
Then consider the community gossip she must have had to endure…
Mary could have lost her life over this seemingly scandalous pregnancy in their societal norms, but she and Joseph both had the faith to trust in God’s plan for their lives as told to them by the angels.
God held Mary so close to him during her pregnancy.
The long and arduous journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem would have taken at least a week, they say, traveling by foot.
Present day, it is not encouraged to travel as your due date nears, and yet Mary and Joseph made their way over 93 miles (just over 150 kilometers) on foot, only to arrive with no place to stay.
We all know how the story goes, but even though Joseph was returning to his lineage home for the census, he wasn’t able to call upon family for a place to stay, and they were left to search out room and board on their own. Even among the animals.
So because of overcrowding and no family to take them in, Jesus was born to humble beginnings with his mother and father (and maybe a stable hand or two?) and lain in a manger—the food trough—for a cradle.
Don’t you just want to sit down with Mary someday in heaven and hear her birth story with Jesus firsthand? I’m so curious about what her mental state was through all the ways her birth plan went awry. 😅
After the birth of Jesus, the Bible doesn’t tell us the list and lineage of family who all came to visit them. There must have been plenty of Joseph’s family in the city of Bethlehem with the census on and all.
Nope—we hear about some random shepherds that saw the star and believed the message brought to them by the angels as well. And, through faith, they made their way to the babe to worship the newborn king.
Are you hearing this old story in a new way? Because that’s what I’m trying to get at here. This story is ridiculous and yet I’ve been listening and telling it like there’s nothing unusual about it for 30+ years now.
As it says in Luke 2:19, Mary treasured and pondered these things. She realized the weight of all that had happened this far in her newly married life with Joseph.
They were suddenly a little family, and not only was she to endure that steep learning curve of becoming a mother for the first time, but also an undertaking no mother has ever had to consider: how to be a mother to the Savior, the Messiah, Jesus.
And there you have it: the heaviest weight of the whole story.
How could this one thought transform how you look at your own children? They are not God of course, but they are made in his image.
How could this one thought transform the kind of mother you are? You are also made in His image.
How could this one thought transform the friend, sister, and daughter that you are? Look around—every person you meet is made in his image.
Do you see them this way?
Lord,
Open my eyes to see Your Word anew each day. Help me to read the Bible not just as distant tales, but as living testimonies that speak to your glory and power.
Give me the wisdom to see beyond the familiar verses to the raw humanity and real experiences of those You chose to carry out Your purposes in the pages of the Bible.
Guide me to find fresh meaning in ancient truths, and to recognize Your image in those around me.
Let our stories become Your stories, transforming how we live, love, and serve.
Amen
Lauren is a founder of For This House. She is learning and growing every day to live authentically for Christ in all things. Lauren lives in British Columbia with her family of boys. She enjoys nature walks, quality time with family or friends, and exploring new places. Learn more about Lauren.