A couple of nights ago I attended a Christmas concert at Vision of Glory Lutheran Church in Plymouth, MN. One of the vocalists sang the beautiful song “Mary Did You Know?” It is my favorite Christmas song by far. Every time I hear it I am deeply moved by the reality of the words. Here they are, for those of you unfamiliar with the lyrics:
“Mary Did You Know”
Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy would one day walk on water? Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy would save our sons and daughters? Did you know that your Baby Boy has come to make you new? This Child that you delivered will soon deliver you.
Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy will give sight to a blind man? Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy will calm the storm with His hand? Did you know that your Baby Boy has walked where angels trod? When you kiss your little Baby you kissed the face of God?
Mary did you know.. Ooo Ooo Ooo
The blind will see. The deaf will hear. The dead will live again. The lame will leap. The dumb will speak The praises of The Lamb.
Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy is Lord of all creation? Mary, did you know that your Baby Boy would one day rule the nations? Did you know that your Baby Boy is heaven’s perfect Lamb? The sleeping Child you’re holding is the Great I Am.
The song’s last sentence transfixed me.
I self-published a book entitled “God with Us: A Walk Through the Gospels” about nine years ago and in the chapter “Mary’s Son” I, too, contemplated some wonder-filled thoughts. As a little devotional piece in keeping with this time of year, I’d like to share an excerpt of my ponderings.
“Wonder Just a Little …
…”Why did God choose to come to earth as a baby? Why did He become a vulnerable, needy, baby boy? What motivated Him to do this? What purpose did it serve that He became one of us–including the need to cut teeth? He learned to crawl, walk and talk. He grew in wisdom–which means He learned.
Can you imagine the Word of God eventually picking up words of Aramaic from His parents in order to speak? He is wisdom itself. By His Word, all things exist.
Can you see His parents’ delight in their small child’s first steps? Imagine, the engineer of the universe toddled. It’s simply too overwhelming to comprehend.
This mystery of God’s incarnation is far too comfortable a notion in our minds. We are way to numb. Once in a while our hearts are awakened with wonder [like what happened to me during those transcendent moments the other night during the Christmas concert]…A shock of truth makes its way through the layers of indifference.
When Jesus walked on water, He shocked a few people. He did this after thirty years of being an ordinaryperson, hidden in the ordinary lives around Him. But Jesus was no ordinary human being. He was fully God and fully man. This is why He came the way He did.
He wanted to be fully human. [Even an ordinary human being.]
Why? Why did He live that hidden ordinary life for so long? Thirty years. What does this tell us about God’sinner life–His heart–about His motives?
Is it possible God simply wanted to love and be loved? He wanted to be known, and He knew we couldn’t know Him because He was too far above and removed from us. Did He want to be handled and held?
[The sleeping Child you’re holding is the Great I Am!]
Did He simply want to be intimately known? There is something very tender about God’s desire to be loved in this way. Why did God desire to experience all that we experience?
Imagine what this meant to a simple carpenter named Joseph. The Lord of heaven and earth, as a baby, began a face-to-face, long term, intimate relationship with Joseph as “his son.” Vulnerable for the first time, God completely entrusted Himself to the very creatures He made. Mary and Joseph were chosen for the most privileged roles of the Ages. How could an ordinary man, called to be an ordinary dad, be the “dad” to Divinity? How could a young woman bear the Creator in her womb?
Did Joseph and Mary know they held their own Maker when they held little Jesus? Did Joseph realize that when he taught Jesus how to work with his hands, that his son’s hands had made him? Did Mary and Joseph ever tremble at the scope of responsibility placed upon their shoulders? Perhaps Jesus’ full identity remained a mystery to them during Jesus’ life. This same great mystery–the earthly life of and mission of Jesus–was the drastic means God took, the tremendous lengths He went to, to bring “Eden” life to us. Eden means delight.
How God longs for intimacy with us. He couldn’t give any more of Himself than He did in the WAY He came to us, and He couldn’t have better proved His love to us than the WAY He showed it to us. Now we know God’s unrelenting, surpassing, surprising, everlasting, love.