“Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished.” Luke 1:45
When considering the life of Mary, mother of Christ, I was moved to tears this morning realizing her journey from the manger to the cross. She knelt to cuddle Him and 33 years later she knelt to mourn Him. I am moved by this today due to fact that Kristen will be 30 on her next birthday. As many of you know, Kristen was a practicing heroin addict for 8 years and through the grace of God walked away from that life 7 years ago. Since that time, she has sponsored many other addicts, lived an extremely strict and disciplined life, deepened her walk with Christ and has made a life-changing impact on others through her testimony. She is only three years away from when Mary’s little boy became one third of the Trinity. I still see her as that little girl as I am sure Mary saw Jesus as she knelt at His feet on the cross.
We have the privilege of looking backwards at dear Mary’s story which is summed up in a tight little package ending in the glorious appearance from her Son after He is resurrected. What the Bible leaves silent is her day to day suffering at the unfolding of the ministry of Jesus…her fears…her heartbreak. The focus was not in the details of her emotions but rather the complete trust and obedience in her walk. She had to trust that wherever God led her and her Son was the ultimate purpose of His life and the glorification of God.
We cannot see the mission that God has chosen for our children. We can only pray to Him and trust that whatever unfolds will be used towards the mission that He has determined for that child. From our children’s birth to death we are entrusted with an amazing privilege called parenthood. Proverbs states that if we raise a child with Christ at the center that child will return to Christ.
Sometimes our role in God’s mission, like Mary’s, may be to parent one who will make a great contribution in the mission of God with their own ministry down the road. Their eventual ministry might have been accompanied by our greatest pain, but the mission would have been impossible without us. Look towards Mary when watching painful circumstances with your own children and be encouraged that one sweet day the reunion of that child that you ‘trained in the way they should go’ will be yours.
‘Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.’ Romans 12:12.
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