Mary, Did You Know?
23 December 2009
Volume 11, Issue 50
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Mary, did you know?
A couple of weeks ago in the
post, ÒGod if you are real?Ó we dealt with how God answers our doubts about His
existence by bringing people and situations into our lives to answer that
question. This week we will take on that testimony that is later offered by
these God questioners to the people who contributed so much to establishing
GodÕs present reality. This begins, ÒDid you know the situation I was in?Ó
In that illumination, as
with GenevonÕs return to our group Christmas party, it was a good thing that I
was sitting in a big overstuffed supporting chair, because I had no idea that
there was anything wrong with her, when our church group called on her that
long past Monday night as she was seriously planning on taking her own life.
As we continue to understand
the realness to trust God for our provisions, those life or death situations no
longer just begin, but become part of a much broader narrative in which we
understand the faithfulness of God, not only as he provides for our needs, but
also adds to that an abundance of blessings and gifts that mean more to us than
we can at this time fully understand or articulate. Many times that blessing
comes from someone we will probably never meet in this life, or if that
happening does occur, one of the first questions we will ask is, ÒDid you
know?Ó
We know the words to the
hymn Amazing Grace. The last verse begins, ÒWhen weÕve been there ten thousand
years,Ó I believe that much of that time will be spent, meeting those who have
blessed our lives and asking them, ÒDid you know?Ó Once they learn about our
knowing, we will meet some of their ÒDid you know friends, and so on, and so
on.Ó Truly a gift that keeps on giving, because the wonder of the gift of GodÕs
grace, can only be truly received if we attempt to continually give it away.
The Bible puts this in
context in Ephesians 3:20,21: Now to him who by the power at work within us
is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, to
him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and
ever.
I copied this verse into the
outline of this article from a daily reading email I receive from the Moravian
Church in North America, for it seemed to fit well with the emphasis I thought
I would like to use. I think I have met a few Moravian church members many
years ago, but I ran across this devotional doing research on John Huss, and I
thought I would check out their doctrine through these daily readings. I didnÕt
know if I would use the verse, but I wanted to keep it in mind maybe, when I
closed out this article. The Christmas season celebrates simply the birth of
Jesus at the point in history where God entered humanity to save us from
ourselves. Until I started writing, I had no idea I would lead with Ephesians
3:20,21.
Similarly, Saturday I was in
Colville, to buy a couple of small items at a store where I many times just
like to look at the stuff they have. After all, that is the American way,
especially at this time of the year. The background Christmas music was softly
playing, when I suddenly realized, can that be, yes it can. The song was, ÒMary
Did You Know?Ó being sung by Kathy Mattea. As I paused in a quiet place to
listen to the rest of the song, I was wondering, ÒKathy do you know how
important this song is to me?Ó
ÒMary Did You Know?Ó was my
favorite song on my very first purchased CD ever. I played it on my Christmas
present bookshelf stereo system. This was my first Christmas that I really
wanted to celebrate for a very long time, because it marked what I considered a
milestone on my way back to a somewhat normal life. I donÕt remember how I got
the money for the CD and the system. At that time I think my mother normally
asked me what I wanted for Christmas and just sent me the money to pretty much
cover the purchase. KathyÕs Christmas CD was what I bought with the money left
after the player purchase and I listened to it over and over as I still do, but
now it has a reserved ÒGood News, KathyÓ playlist on iTunes in my Christmas
music folder and on my iPod.
ÒGood NewsÓ
is definitely not a music collection about Santa Claus coming to town, so letÕs
go to the mall and buy some stuff, so we can give things to others that they
probably donÕt want, and if they needed it they would have purchased for
themselves. Good News is a collection of stories about the Greatest Story Ever
Told, set within the God given gift of music.
To fill in some of the years
that had elapsed between my Good News purchase and that fateful day, when I had
walked into my office, closed the door and said, ÒGod if you are real, get me
out of here?Ó In that decade plus, I received so many rejection letters I could
not even try to continue searching for another job. I had gotten a divorce that
I found absolutely devastating. I had sold the house that I had considered to
be where I wanted to live the rest of my life. I had needed to liquidate all of
my accrued wealth to make ends meet and to try to start a grossly under-funded
business.
I had lived almost a year in
a motel, with a billboard sign I could see from my window, asking for help to
feed and shelter the homeless. ÒThere but by the grace of God go I,Ó was becoming
something I now understood quite well. I had lived in a house under significant
remodel for about eight months, and in a house taking care of a man dying of
cancer for a number of months, and I was now sort of working for my rent, by
doing a little remodeling while the estate was being settled. I had never been
on food stamps, and I was now beginning to make some money installing and
refinishing hardwood floors, working for the only job I could get, offered to
me by Gary, at the Pentecostal church I attended. This job had nothing to do of
course with over twenty years of formal education and more college credits than
most PhDs.
One of my goals after I got
my release from corporate America was to bring some unity between my secular
life, in the true dictionary definition, and my spiritual life. That Christmas
I was making progress in understanding that all these losses, were in someway
gains or gifts. Psalm 37:25 was beginning to make perfect sense: I have been
young, and now I am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his
descendants begging bread.
But that is not the end of
the last Saturday ÒMary Did You Know?Ó story. After I had returned to what I
now call ÒThe HutÓ I was watching some of the football games. I had checked my
DVR and saw that it was recording ÒThe Glenn Beck Christmas Show.Ó I decided to
let it finish recording before I took time to watch the show, so that I could
fast forward through the commercials.
Glenn of course is a Mormon,
or a member of the LDS church. Rural Eastern Washington is Mormon territory,
not as strong as Utah, but in high school, we used to visit a friend to get a
carload to go to the Autoview, drive-in movie theater. Dave really wasnÕt a church
member, but his mother was definitely evangelistic. So if me, John and Roger,
wanted to get six guys to go to the show we would drop in and see Dave with
about an hour to spare before they began to run the cartoons at dusk. About
thirty minutes after our arrival the Mormon Missionaries would show up and we
had our carload. The main reason for not looking for other kids to fill up the
car was most of them wanted to see if we could get some beer or something
stronger to turn the night not into a double feature but an excuse to get
drunk.
I also bowled with three
temple Mormons when I was in the Army, our team name was the Holy Rollers,
Later, as I was working entrepreneurial and small business consulting, many of
my contacts and networking associates were either Mormons themselves or were in
someway linked to those, who had members or LDS church resources at their
disposal.
I bring this up because
Christians consider Mormonism a Christian cult. But the United States is based
upon freedom of religion and this country is going to need all the resources at
our disposal to re-whatever this nation within the miraculous freed culture
that the United States Founders put in place well over two hundred years ago.
Mormons are going to need the help of regular Christians, or the other way
around, if this populism is going to succeed. That is a simple truth. If you
have trouble with that, get over it. Become teachable to the reality that GodÕs
diverse ways are always totally superior to your redeemed but still sinful
inherited nature.
Furthermore the religious
experience emphasis and piety of Mormonism isnÕt all that different than that
Jesus in your heart mentality of many Christian evangelicals – except
that Mormons are more systematic in their discipleship and they empathize that
these latter days may not offer the Rapture escape that is the major marketing
tool of much of American evangelicalism. All work hard to be good Christians,
and have a tough time understanding the depth and breadth of GodÕs justifying
grace.
But back to The Glenn Beck
Christmas Show. Toward the end of the program Glenn took out an old Andy
Williams Christmas LP Album cover. On the show there was a video link with Andy
someplace in California. Glenn was mentioning his mother had loved one song on
the record called ÒLittle Altar Boy,Ó and she had called Glenn her little Altar
boy.
Both Andy and Glenn
continued to discuss the song, while GlennÕs eyes welled up and he was having
trouble keeping his emotions in check. Towards the end of the discussion, Andy
was explaining that at the age of eighty-two he was still doing Christmas
concerts, and would continue doing so, as long as he could. Then he mentioned
that the show no longer used, ÒLittle Altar Boy, but ÒMary Did You Know?Ó
Then I lost my cool. Special
things and times I had been too busy to think about for a very long time welled
up in my soul.
Mary was the prime human
vessel God used to bring about the real reason you can have a Merry Christmas,
when you seem to have nothing else that the world might think significant. You
hear that is better to give than receive, but a gift that costs you little, can
only have little value. The priceless gift of God given a Christmas is a joyful
eternity, which begins here and now, nothing less.
In the same way I suppose
Mary only learned after the fact, the Wonder of her blessing, even though she
was told beforehand what she was going to be given. Through the Christmas
miracle we all have been given that opportunity to receive a gift as humble as
a baby, yet is the King of Kings. All we have to do is to believe, and yet the
more we learn about that gift we begin to see that faith to believe, is really
the worldÕs most valuable gift, not just for Christmas, but for every day of
our lives.
So, you see this now has a
very meaningful story line that when I started I didnÕt have a clue how I even
wanted to put it together, before I knew that because of a, hum – I guess
the words of the song express it better than I ever could.
ÒMary did you know?Ó by
Kathy Mattea is available as a single on iTunes, and is totally the best $.99
you will ever spend.
Mary,
did you know that your baby boy
Would
someday 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've 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 a storm with His hand?
Did you
know that your baby boy
Has
walked where angels trod?
When you
kissed your little baby
Then
you've kissed the face of God.
Mary Did
you know??
Mary,
did you know??
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
Will one
day rule the nations?
Did you
know that your baby boy
Was
Heaven's perfect Lamb?
This
sleeping Child you're holding
Is the
great "I AM
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