This year I’m listening again to Maverick City’s version of “Mary Did You Know?” Chandler Moore spontaneously sings as he often does, elaborating on what it would mean for Mary to be pregnant in that time, at her age, and out of wedlock. The shame she would have brought on her family and herself. Everyone on the outside misunderstanding what God was doing in her life.
And yet, this shame she had to endure was wrapped up in her calling. If she was to give birth to the Son of God it would require great pain—physically, emotionally, socially—not in spite of her calling but because of it. Chandler Moore compares our stories to Mary’s: just as we wonder if Mary knew the greatness inside of her, do we know the greatness that lives in us (this side of the resurrection, I’d add!)?
Then he sings a line that gives me chills every time: “This process is necessary, Mary.” The process was necessary as it is with every pregnancy. In the darkness of Mary’s womb, Jesus’ vital organs were being formed. A premature birth would have been dangerous for mother and baby. Development would take time, and Mary had to endure the discomfort of the wait.
Mary could prepare, she could anticipate, but at the end of the day the waiting period was 40 weeks and there’s nothing she could do to speed it up. Her body and her baby were not yet ready for birth. This process was necessary.
Yet, she was still right in the center of God’s will, even though the wait was slow and shrouded with shame. It’s the same for us, whatever we might be waiting for: healing, a new place to live, community, more stable finances, a spouse, a child of our own, a fulfilling job, a renewed sense of hope. Advent resonates every year because we always seem to be waiting for something. Multiple things, usually. Loose ends still need to be tied up, griefs remain, unanswered questions persist.
Sharon Hodde Miller writes, “Waiting feels hard and unnatural. As if we are hanging in suspended animation, stuck in a purgatory outside God’s true will. But Advent reminds us that waiting is not a detour from the path. From Moses to David to Israel we see: Waiting is a part of our formation.” Waiting is part of the process.
In the waiting we learn to trust God’s intentionality when all feels arbitrary, to trust his timing when everything feels delayed, to trust his love when his providence feels cruel. This trust is anything but natural for me, but in Mary I see one with similar hopes and fears, and what God did while she waited affects me to this day. Like pregnancy, waiting won’t last forever. In this Advent season, while I wait with Mary I want to remember: this process is necessary.
Image: St. Therese Quinn, Australia.
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