Nudging Toward the Cross
by Kathy Brown on December 15th, 2009 | 1 comment
This season of the year is especially a good time to go back in time and think about how even mothering reflects a worldview.
We can picture the scene and share in Mary’s amazement. We may recall in our own lives the cry of our firstborn. We have huddled in a dimly lit nursery, pressed ourselves close to the sweet exhale of a newborn, caressed a fragile hand that folds around our finger; stroked the downy head that nuzzles into our shoulder. We know what it feels like to wonder how the little life before us will turn out. What will this wee creature grow up to be? What personality, job or inclinations will unfold from the soft rosy bundle before us?
Surely Mary experienced all of this and more. Surrounded by barn animals, simply clad shepherds, and a husband not biologically related to her son, Mary had clues to the identity of the one she bore. He was the centerpiece of a spectacular evening. Even the star overhead exclaimed this crescendo of history. At last there was delivered a long awaited remedy to the broken shalom of creation. The crack of sin that broke perfect unity with the Creator could be filled.
The nativity lamb instinctively knew that someday the lion would no longer stalk, but would be tame again because of the One who squirmed in the straw bed. The men leaning on their crooks yearned for this promised Redeemer to provide for them a new nature that would free them from their own selfishness and pride. Joseph, himself a follower of the One True God, kneeling in the dirt understood his bow to this infant was in submission to his King. But, Mary. What about Mary?
She must have clutched this one called Emmanuel: God with us. A Mom’s love poured out over the flesh and blood she was called to nurture. And yet, she was aware that His Spirit was not like her own. He was inhabited by the Holiness of God. She knew one day her own little boy would grow up and be her Savior. The sacrificial system so long a part of her Jewish people would soon be finished. The remembrance of blood shed in the Temple stabbed her own heart because this life she held would pay the penalty as nothing else, no one else could. He would die for her and anyone who believed Him. She was torn between holding Him, capturing Him and never letting Him go, or surrendering Him to His True Father. Would she be able to nudge Him toward the Cross? Could she obey her calling to raise up this Jesus for the very purposes of her Yahweh?
We know how Mary answered those gut wrenching questions. She did what God asked her to do. She knew, maybe more than anyone ever would, that Grace is not cheap. The Love that pulsated through the arteries of her slain son would be spattered for you and me and, ironically, our children. For the sake of a humanity held hostage to sin, Mary willingly, gratefully, fed, protected and taught her own to walk the road of Calvary.
Mary stood at the crucifixion, probably recalling how it all started for her. She had decided, back then and there, that her life would matter for the Audience of One, Her God. And that made all the difference forever.
From the Word of God:
"Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother . . ." John 19:25
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1 Comment Add your comment
Kathryn Hexum December 20th, 2009
Kathy...your writing is beautiful!
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