I shared this at the Dec 2025 Journeys Christmas program
Mary carried Jesus in her arms when He was born, and as a mother, she carried Him in her heart for His 33 years on earth.
Mary, did you know how your heart would carry so deeply the hurtful things that Jesus endured?
He offered truth, and they called Him a liar.
He offered love and they hated Him for it.
Mary, did you know that though betrayed by a friend and unjustly sentenced to a gruesome death – He would still offer forgiveness to all?
Mary, did you have a clue as to what life would mean for Him … and also for you?
Mary, when I try to see through your eyes, I can feel a wee bit of your anguish. I see how my son Jordon, being on the autism spectrum, now age 32, has lived with great anxiety trying to navigate all the confusing and ever changing nuances in his world.
He offers friendship to those who do not see him as I do – and certainly not as God does;
To those who sometimes see him as less than themselves, and therefore feel justified to dismiss and disregard him as a person of value.
The mother bear in me rises and I want to shout, ‘Can you not recognize the value of who he is?
Do you not see that he needs to be respected and embraced, just like you do?’
Mary, what did you do when flooded with those mother-bear intense feelings of protection for Jesus?
When Jesus was an infant, Simeon in the temple, prophesied that a ‘sword would pierce her own soul.’ I imagine her soul was pierced many times, as mine has been, when any of my children face injustice or the cruelty of others.
Though it’s been said that those with autism have different wiring in their thinking, I am so thankful that his spirit can still catch and respond to the simplicity of the love of Jesus. Once Jordon’s class was being punished when no one took responsibility for writing a bad word on the board. Though he knew who had done it, Jordon didn’t want the whole class to suffer so he claimed that he, himself, had written it. He did not deserve it, yet he took the punishment for the wrongdoer.
When I asked him why, he simply said, ‘Mom I just wanted to be like Jesus.’
Jesus was the sinless Son of God who stepped down and took the punishment we deserved. Though He was not recognized by most for who He was, you saw, Mary. Deep in your heart, you knew.
Mary, did you ever want to shield Jesus from the inevitable pain and take it upon yourself? If you could have, none of us would have the joy of knowing Him and the promise of being with Him forever.
So Mary delivered Him as a baby, but as an adult she knew she had to deliver and release Him, not to those who misunderstood Him; not to an angry and murderous mob, but she delivered and released Him by faith to the greater purposes of a loving God Who, through Jesus’ sacrifice, pardons all.
To free you, to free me.
And, like Mary, I, along with all mothers, release my children into the loving hands of the Heavenly Father who promises to redeem and bring all things together for good.
Mary was told no word of God will ever fail…
This promise is true for us as well.
Mary was told…that Lord was with her. And Immanuel is also with us.
So we can rest assured that His mercy extends to us and our children ‘from generation to generation’.