Mary Did You Know?

This is one of my favorite contemporary Christmas songs.  It has become even more nostalgic to me this year after losing Lynda this summer.  I've thought often about how Mary must have grieved and suffered as she stood and watched her son die on the cross.  Even if she understood that He had risen from the dead and was living in heaven, her mother's heart must have still ached for the baby she held in her arms only a few short years before.

And then I think of our Heavenly Father who knew the whole plan from start to finish and who loved Jesus more than we can imagine.  I admit the Trinity still ties my brain in knots to wrap my mind around God the Father sending God the Son to earth to be born of a virgin and to die on a cross for me.

While I always had empathy for Mary and Joseph and our Heavenly Father who watched as their child die, I have to say having actually lost a child to death brings a new dimension of compassion for the parents of Jesus...both earthly and heavenly.  It also has kept me on my knees throughout this Christmas season thanking God in a way I've never prayed before.  I loved my Daddy and I cannot wait to see him again in heaven but the loss of a child is even more painful than I had ever imagined.  I am so thankful that Jesus guarantees me that I will see Lynda again and that she is perfect and happy and loved.  How would a parent keep from losing his or her mind if he believed that the grave was the end?  Thankfully, Jesus has provided the sacrifice that turns death into a new beginning.  For Lynda...she is now a new creature and capable of so many things she could never do during her forty-one years on earth.

When Mary touched her baby's face I wonder if she realized completely that she was touching the face of God?  As I touched my baby's face as she was leaving for heaven, I knew that she was about to see the face of God!

Oh, what a wonderful God we serve!  Oh, how He loves you and me.