Holy Hunger

"Mom, where does Jesus go,"  my then eight-year old son asked. Earlier, I'd asked him to set up the nativity creche for me.
"How about real close to Mary."
He held the small china figurine in his palm and with an unexpected tenderness whispered, "Mary must have been very special for God to choose her to be Jesus' mother."
I nodded a yes and watched as he repositioned the infant and placed Joseph, the Wise Men, lambs, camel, and shepherd boy around the stable.
"Do you think if you lived then," he asked, "that God would have chosen you as Jesus' mother?"
Sigh...big question for a little kid...how did that wisdom come out of me, I thought. Although I'm certain all that he was looking for was a simple, "yes" or "no" answer, somehow I felt that my answer would be more for me than for him. "I'll tell you what, son. Why don't you play X-Box for half an hour before bed, instead of doing your homework."
With a look that said, "Who are you and what have you done with my mother," he said, "Cool," and dashed to his room.
Great! I'd bought myself time. I put the kettle on for a cup of tea, found my Bible, and settled into the plush sofa surveying the manger scene. Suddenly, I felt myself drawn to Mary.
What was so special about Mary that the Creator of the Universe...that He who had made all things came one night as a babe to lie in the crook of her arms?
I found my answer in Luke 1:38, where the angel spoke to Mary and told her that she'd be with child and that the child would be the Son of the Most High God. She said to the angel, "Let it be to me according to Your word."
Whooosh! It was not so much that God chose Mary to give birth to the Word but that she trusted His choice! She didn't tell Him she was unworthy, didn't make excuses, didn't question her own significance or lack of station in life to birth a king, nor did she question her stature with God. rather, she trusted His choice and she responded with a passionate "yes" to God's invitation. How bold were her words!
For several years prior, the enemy had wreaked havoc on my own feelings of worth because of many upheavals in my life. If God had asked anything major of me, I may have responded with something like, "Are You sure You have the right Shae, Lord?"
But Mary let go of her doubts, trusted her worth, and responded with a resounding "OK!" She modeled what God asks of us and that is to see ourselves as He sees us...not incidental but as how He chooses to become known to the world! Mary also hungered for God and the humble space in her heart was held open by her holy hunger. In a sense, she wooed the Lord to her by her hunger and she refused to let her heart be filled with anything less than God's word of life.
Mary's words of long ago fan the longing of my soul to trust in the Lord without reservation or hesitation. Her trust ignites my longing to live with the full knowledge of who I am in Him. God chose her because of her holy hunger and it's my prayer that we yearn too to fill the spaciousness of our hearts with God's word so that our fears of vulnerability or inadequacy take the shape of the manger.
I pray this Christmas season that we become as bold and as hungry as Mary and join her in saying, "Let it be to me according to Your word." Perhaps then we too will be able to birth and cradle the Savior as Mary did.


Friends, someone once said, "Just as a vase cannot be filled with flowers if it has no space within, so it is with our hearts!
Have a blessed Christmas! I love you!

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder; and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6).