Do you know the story of Mary? She was a teenager engaged to an older man named Joseph. I’m not exactly sure of their ages, but Mary was thought to be between 14 and 16, and Joseph in his thirties.
In Mary’s time, a woman who became pregnant out of wedlock was punished as if she had committed adultery. Even if the person was her betrothed.
If a man marries a girl who is claimed to be a virgin and then finds that she is not, “they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her father’s house and there her townsmen shall stone her to death” (Deut. 22:20)
Before her marriage to Joseph, Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel who told her she would become pregnant with the child of God. She asked him how this could be since she was a virgin.
Can you even imagine? Here’s this teenage girl, visited by a celestial being, and told she’s going to have a baby.
Under Jewish law, an engagement like Joseph and Mary’s was treated almost like a marriage and could only be broken by an official divorce.
We all know how the story turned out. Mary lived to deliver her baby.
One of the greatest gifts the world received was all because one very, young woman said yes. She trusted and stepped forward in faith without knowing what would come next.
I like to think of Mary as one of the bravest women of all time. A role model, and inspiration of what it’s like to live a faith-based life. Someone we can look to whenever we’re afraid of taking the next big step toward our own uncertain destiny.
While I continue to love that Jesus is the reason for the season, I also like to remember Mary who risked everything so future generations could live with hope, peace, love, forgiveness, and mercy.
It’s all because she said “yes.”
Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!
