Small Town Mary

As I am packing away the Christmas decorations, I found myself lingering over this little Nativity set. I remember when we watched "The Nativity Story" this year, and as with every year, a new aspect of the movie and the story spoke to me. This year, I honed in on Mary, mostly, and Joseph too, and the fact that though it is not detailed much in the Bible, their humanity.

Mary seemed to take the Angel at his word, and pretty easily. However, the part the Bible leaves out that the creative version of the movie portrays most painfully is the reaction of the townspeople to her perceived disgrace. The looks, the whispers, the disgust..... And once the angel had appeared to Joseph as well, she did have someone with whom to share the weight of the Promise, but it didn't clear up the misperceptions. I have thought of this part before and felt sympathy for Mary and Joseph.

At this viewing, however, another thought struck me: I have always sort of thought of them as having nine months or so of embarrassment and righteous indignation, then the rest of their lives being a kind of supernatural "told you so". See, if there is one thing about me that I love, it's a chance to be proven right. I don't necessarily mind being wrong and I am always happy to apologize if I'm wrong, but nothing makes me any crazier than being falsely accused or being right and others not realizing or acknowledging it. As we watched the movie this year, it hit me that Mary and Joseph had no sort of proclamation to those in Galilee that they had birthed the Son of God. An angel didn't accompany them back from Egypt, pointing at each person who had whispered about them, saying, "Told you, told you, told you..." Instead, they returned with their Son, this Son of God and Son of Man, and lived in the same sort of small town that I live in, a town where everyone knows everyone and everyone knows the past. Jesus grew up in this small town and no doubt the rumors followed Him and Mary and Joseph. It wasn't until many, many years later that His deity was realized, and even then not by everyone, partly by denial and partly by lack of proximity. Mary didn't have the option to Instagram story His turning water into wine at the wedding. No one was able to Facebook live the healings. Instead, Mary lived the remainder of her life as the Mother of God to those who knew and the Human Who Blew It to those who didn't.

It's yet another reminder of the humility that Mary possessed. The humility that we, that *I*, are so often lacking. And another reminder of the fact that God's ways are not man's, and He doesn't always choose to reveal His truths to clear our names, as much as we would like for Him to. Because ultimately, it's not about our comfort but rather about our obedience.