Our daughter held the gift, stared at it a moment, then handed it back to the giver. “No bow!” she said. We shared a good laugh amidst that embarrassing moment.
Would you believe this friend
presented her gift to our daughter a second time? Yes. With a bow on top!
This time it was accepted!
People stand in long store lines after Christmas, waiting to return gifts for a multitude of reasons. “Too small, too big, already have one, don’t like this color, doesn’t work,” and the ultimate—just plain ol’ “don’t want it.”
An unwanted gift? Hmm.
My mind jumps to nearly 2 years
after the birth of the Christ Child—when the magi came from the East to present
the young Child with their gifts—gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
Gold and frankincense? Lovely gifts
honoring this Holy One.
But myrrh???
Good thing I wasn't the mother of
Jesus! Had a wise man given my tot myrrh, I might've shoved it back at him and
shouted, "Take back that gift!"
Myrrh? Burial spice? An appropriate gift?
But let me back up a bit. What
about the strips of swaddling cloth Mary wrapped her newborn in at the time of
His birth? As she wound those about Him, did she shed tears? After all weren’t
these there in prep for the dead? Not an infant full of life?
And what about the lambs that were
swaddled, chosen to be sacrificed? Did her mind flash to an image of a lamb
upon an altar? She’d been raised to practice Jewish ceremonial law. She knew
what a Passover lamb was.
And she knew she held the Ultimate Sacrifice—wrapped as one would be at burial.
… Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.” Luke 2:19
I've thought a lot about Mary's
pondering ... so much so that I asked my husband to look up "ponder"
in the original language and context of that Scripture. One definition read
"conflict." Indeed, Mary must have wrestled, knowing her newborn came
into the world to die.
Of course, all of us eventually
die, but how many mothers' thoughts go there while beholding their infant?
Over the years, I've known a
handful of women who received dooming news before their babies' births. They
still yearned to hold their little ones but shed many tears, cradling while
their hearts moaned lullabies in minor keys. They treasured each moment with a
mourning love.
Mary likely felt the way those moms
did. Hit with the realization that the
infant she caressed, wrapped in burial cloths, would die. And when the magi
came a long time later, she faced that again.
So, she didn’t return the gift of
myrrh but accepted it, knowing her son would need it. What an awful pondering for
her and Jesus!
Thirty-some years later they beheld each
other from different vantage points at Calvary ... the moment they both dreaded
yet accepted, knowing the will of The Father.
Good thing Mary accepted that gift,
and I’m grateful the Son of God did too. He rose again to give us all another
gift—eternal life.
I chose that gift when I asked
Jesus into my life, and there's no taking that back! I'm His child for keeps.
Hallelujah!
Man of
sorrows what a name for the Son of God, who came
Ruined
sinners to reclaim: Hallelujah, what a Savior!
Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he
stood,
Sealed my pardon with his blood: Hallelujah, what a Savior!
Guilty, helpless, lost were we; blameless Lamb of God was he,
Sacrificed to set us free: Hallelujah! What a Savior!
(from Man
of Sorrows by Philip P. Bliss, 1875, public domain)
#Christmas #Mary #Jesus #swaddlingcloths #magi #goldfrankincensemyrrh
#gift #sacrifice #LambofGod #Passoverlamb #ponder
Amen
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
DeleteMyrrh is also a healing oil. :) Love your thoughts about Mary.
ReplyDeleteThat's amazing as we think of the One Who anointed with it having "healing in His Wings!" Thanks for sharing that.
Delete