This year is our church's 25th annual Christmas pageant, and I am privileged to have a part in it playing Mary. If you're local, come see us tonight the 10th at 7:00 pm, Friday the 12th @7:00, or Sunday the 14th @ 6:00. Located at 35100 Goltra Rd. Albany, OR 97322. (photos from two years ago, Mark Ylen. Sorry so old, I didn't have any others!)
It has been really difficult to play this role. God has been breaking me. Humbling me, stripping me down until the deepest parts of me are left exposed and it has left me feeling more vastly insecure and vulnerable than ever before.
But at the same time, what has felt like the searing flames of refining fire to me, has helped me see Mary in a whole new light.
Is this how she felt?
Broken down, misunderstood, and unknown? I cannot imagine the emotions that must have raged in her heart. Having all of her hopes and dreams and plans shattered in a single moment when she realized she was going to have a baby, while still being unmarried. How terrified she must have felt!
How frightened.
How alone.
How confused.
How broken.
But she trusted God.
She must've wondered a million times a day what He was thinking with this unbelievable plan of His, but she decided to put her faith in Him. She decided to let Him lead her where she could not see the end of the road, where she could not even see beyond her next step. She decided to place her entire life in His hands because after all...........
It wasn't about her.
It was about the prophecy coming true, God coming down to earth, being born of a virgin and dying on a cross to pay the price of our sin, and rising again to give us all a hope of eternity.
So this year, I hope you, like me, can focus on the true meaning of it all. I haven't always. I have gotten swept up in the presents and the shopping and the trees and lights and pageants and performances like anyone else.
But this year is different.
This year I am once again realizing what it truly, is all about.
