Family Faith Reflections from Chris

When my wife was very, very pregnant with our first child and began having infrequent and minor contractions, I suggested we go to the hospital (20+ minutes away). She assured me it wasn’t time. As the contractions became stronger and came faster, I insisted we start driving, but was again rebuffed. Too many hours later, when I threatened to go to the hospital with or without her, she reluctantly got into the car.

Ten minutes down the road, she said, “We might have to pull over.” I calmly and gently told her in the strongest possible terms that the car would not be stopping under any circumstances. We tore down the highway and skidded to a stop in the ambulance area, then I ran into the hospital lobby, hopping up and down and hollering “Baby! Right now there’s a baby!” until a small army of nurses and orderlies took over.


May is the month of Mary, and we remember with solemn devotions the life and stories of the mother of Christ. The Bible doesn’t tell us whether she sat calmly on that donkey as it sauntered into Bethlehem or if, perhaps, she and Joseph were engaged in an “urgent dialogue” about when and where the donkey needed to “pull over.”

It doesn’t tell us if Mary was the kind of cool mom who would let Jesus eat Cheez-its and drink Pepsi, or if she was a strict “celery sticks and kale chips” mother. And it never explicitly tells us how she was feeling when Jesus told her he would be going into the desert to fast for forty days. How she was feeling as she watched him turn water into wine.


Whether she watched as the nails went into his hands, or had to look away.
 

But in all these stories there are little clues to her character, glimpses of her personality. Tiny insights into the woman whose picture is hanging up in our
church — and probably somewhere in your own home. It’s worth our time to get to know her better. And to honor her this month, let’s use this space to do just that.