What Mary’s Mother Knew

The season of Advent is almost upon us. A week from today is the first Sunday of Advent, and we light the Candle of Hope. This first candle symbolizes our anticipation of the birth of the Messiah. It’s also called the “Prophecy Candle” to remind us of Isaiah’s foretelling of the birth of Jesus. 

But we can’t talk about the birth of the Savior without thinking about His mother Mary. The contemporary classic, “Mary Did You Know?,” by lyricist Mark Lowry asks several questions about the mother of Jesus: Did she know that her son would walk on water? Did she know that her son would give sight to a blind man? Did she know that he would rule the nations? Mark Lowry made us all think about Mary.

But I’ve never really thought about Mary’s mother. Her teenage daughter’s pregnancy was an event that would change the world, but that same event also would have profoundly changed her own life. Would the family be shamed? Would  Joseph reject Mary? Would she be stoned according to Jewish law? 

Recently, while scrolling through Facebook, I ran across a post by “Terryn” on a blog named “Just a Simple Home.” I was unable to discern any more information about the author, but I thought that her post was incredibly profound, and I share it with you below. The credit for the writing, however, goes to Terryn, who beautifully imagined the life of the grandmother of the Messiah.

This time of year, we talk about Mary a lot.
But what about Mary’s mother?
Someone had to raise Mary to find favor with God.
Someone had to raise Mary to treasure purity.
Someone had to raise Mary to honor Joseph.
Someone had to raise Mary to know the voice of the Lord, even though they were living in the silent years.

Mary’s mother–we don’t know her name.
We don’t know what her life looked like.
We don’t know who she was married to, or what he was like.
All we know is that she raised the mother of Christ.
She raised a daughter, highly favored of the Lord.
She raised a daughter to fear the Lord, when the Lord was silent.
This is what we know.

Mary’s mother didn’t have an encounter with Angel, telling her to raise Mary carefully because of how the Lord was going to use her.
Mary’s mother chose to raise Mary wisely so that the Lord could use her.

Mary’s mother didn’t have an encounter with Angel, telling her to honor her husband, because Mary would need to honor Joseph when he told her to travel to Bethlehem while she was great with child, when he told her to flee Herod’s wrath (before it came to pass) in the middle of the night. Mary’s mother just honored her husband, obeyed, and submitted to him because she knew that’s what she was called to do.

Mary’s mother didn’t have an encounter with an Angel, giving her a word to cling to in those dark, silent years. But she clung to the word of God that she had. She trusted his word, even during his silence.
And her home shone with divine favor, because she made choices in the dark, that affected the whole world.

Mary did you know?
She knew some–she knew what the Angel told her.

But Mary’s mother?
She had no idea.
But she chose to raise a daughter that the Lord could use.
And that choice still affects us all today.

Who you raise can affect eternity.
The example you set in marriage can affect eternity.
Your home can make the gates of Hell tremble.
But it starts with you.

That stable, that young mother and her husband, those shepherds and kings, that star in the sky–that entire story is so much more than a story. It’s the beginning of the night that changed our lives. It’s not just Mary’s story. It’s our story. 

“Once in our world, a stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world.”–C.S. Lewis