[A few questions from one mother to another]

You were just a child yourself, standing in that place,

A light from Heaven blinding, you as you fell to your knees.

What did it feel like Mary, to hear the words that would change your life?

Was there fear and trepidation mixed with incomprehensible peace?

How did it feel when he said you would carry the longed awaited King?

Was it disbelief, unworthiness or fear taking precedence in your heart?

You said, “I am His servant, let it be as you have said.”

How did you find such faith to trust Him from the start?

What was it like when you had to approached Joseph?

How could you hope to make him understand words you couldn’t even comprehend; 

Knowing full well the consequences of that whispered utterance,

Meant that your betrothal, and perhaps even your life, might end? 

What kind of faith does it take to walk into that room, Mary?

And look the man you are to marry in the eye,

And tell him an unbelievable story of an angel and a child,

Knowing it would be impossible to make him believe it’s not a lie.

And how did it feel Mary, when he arrived at you door? 

Telling you he believed you, and he saw an angel too.

Did you cry in relief when he said he would still take you as his bride?

Choosing to carry the burden of this blessing alongside you.

What was the journey like on that donkey to Bethlehem? 

How much fear and pain and torment did you go through?

As your hips and back and chest ached with the weight and pressure

Of the child and the responsibility you carried in your womb. 

Every jostle and bump and lumber of that creature,

You would have felt it all in every ache of your body.

I can’t imagine how torturous it would have been for you,

To be that pregnant – riding on a donkey.

What was it like the first time you were turned away from an inn?

How did you feel when it happened again and again and again?

When your only option was a barn, did your weary heart begin to hurt?

Or was it easy to trust that the God who brought you this far,

Would protect the baby you’d have to deliver in the dirt?

What was it like Mary, when the pain threatened to undo you,

As you laboured to bring the Son of Man into that unlikely room?

As you breathed through every contraction and strain and unbearable moment,

While Life Himself transitioned through your womb.

And when you first heard that cry, Mary,

As The Word made flesh uttered His first sound,

Could you actually feel the moment, Mary?

When that barn and that dirt became hallowed ground.

Mary, would you have been able to comprehend the nails

That would pierce the tiny fist that clutched your finger?

Mary, could you have even fathomed the blood

That would run down the cheeks where infant tears lingered?

Mary, how could you foresee the depths of the battle

That would be fought to hell and back, and would be won

When there in that stable and in that moment,

All you could see before you was your son.

©️ Ferne Hood 2024