Mary Did You Know? By Vickie Stam

 Every year music is one of the most warm and inviting things about Christmas. So many beautiful songs help usher in the Christmas season. They can be heard everywhere from inside your home, your car and even while you're shopping.

When I was a child my mother played her favourite albums by singers such as, Burl Ives, Gene Autry and Bing Crosby. So many wonderful songs filled our home. Songs about sleigh bells, reindeer, winter wonderlands, Santa Claus and Jesus. It was a magical time of year. 

Years later, I find it difficult to choose an absolute favourite, but there is one song that I could listen to over and over - Mary Did You Know? This song is captivating!

Beautifully written by Mark Lowry and its music was written by Buddy Greene. It is one of those songs that can trigger a slew of emotions. I never know which one will let loose. The song is a narrative that is centred not only on Jesus, but on his mother, Mary. It's a story filled with wonder, love, redemption and miracles. Sung in a gentle manner its tender tone can cause me to cry at the mere thought of kissing the face of God or smiling when a blind man can see. 

The lyrics are full of insight and yet full of wonder as well. I can hardly imagine what Mary must have been feeling - a young girl giving birth to a baby boy who would one day save the world. 

Mary did you know is one of those songs that has been recorded and performed by many different musician. Mark Lowry also recorded the song along with the Gaither Band on their Christmas album in 1998 - Still the Greatest Story Ever Told. Wow! I can't think of a better way to describe this song.     

      

Ponderings ... Wonderings by Joylene M. Bailey

My husband and I raised three daughters. So when our first grandson came along things felt different. Not just because he made us grandparents, but because he was a boy.

I was privileged to meet him on November 21, 2013, the day after he was born. And in the month between his birth and Christmas Day that year, I found myself pondering the birth of Christ in a whole new way. He was a baby boy too. In fact, I pondered much more than His birth. And I pondered it from the perspective of a mother. More and more, I found myself thinking of Mary.

I watched my daughter fall in love with her new son. I watched her care for him and coo to him. I thought of Mary, loving her new baby boy, cooing to Him, cuddling Him. She knew He was very special, but did she know anything about what the future would bring? The angel Gabriel had only told her that she would bear a son and name Him Jesus, that He would be great and that there would be no end to His kingdom.

As I watched my daughter with her new son, my heart broke for Mary.

Joy and pain; love and fear. A mother’s heart goes through many things as she raises her child, but I wonder … could anything be more heartbreaking than watching your child suffer to the point of death? Mary, on that first Christmas Day, did you know your Son would have to suffer so?

It is probably a God-given kindness that we cannot see into the future.

Our grandson turned four this year. Every year that has passed, I have thought about Jesus at that age. More than that, I have thought about Mary, raising this boy she is growing to love more and more with each passing year; how He and His siblings are filling her mother-heart to overflowing and then …

I wonder ... Once Jesus had risen from the dead, and appeared to His disciples. Once He had taken His rightful place in heaven ... was her heart healed? Or, like Jesus’ risen body bore the scars of his death, did her heart still bear the scars of her heartbreak?

Perhaps I’ll ask her one day, when I meet her in heaven.

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Joylene will be relishing her time this Christmas with four-year-old Little Man, as well as Sweet Thing, Sunny & Bright, all of their parents, her Cowboy, Babe, and a cat named Calvin. 

She blogs at Scraps of Joy.

It's Just Too Awesome - Shirley S. Tye

The song Mary Did You Know brought tears to my eyes the other day as I listened to it. What was it that touched me that way?

I tried to image standing in Mary’s place, holding the little helpless baby; that little someone who was totally dependent upon others for everything; and yet He was the Great I Am. It must have been awesome to hold Jesus like that and even more awesome to follow His life day by day; to see Him grow up in the same manner as most humans; and later witness the miracles He preformed; listen to His teachings; and see the crowds of people following Him.

But while Jesus was in that baby form, did Mary really know who he was; did she fully understand? I don’t know if I would have been able to completely comprehend that my little baby would grow up to do such great things; restore sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf and voices to the mute; strengthen the limbs of the lame; heal people of various illnesses, and even raise the dead. Would I have believed that He was Lord of all creation? What thoughts would have run through my mind as I kissed His cheek? It’s just too awesome!

Did Mary know what gruesome death He would suffer? That’s what brought the tears to my eyes. I can’t image raising a child while knowing this bit of information. What horrendous agony that must have been to watch her child, then a young man, tormented and executed. Yet this was God’s plan of salvation for everyone. It’s just too awesome!