This post exists to help you answer the profound and pressing question (which, I’m sure, is on your mind or at least will be in a moment): What do Mary the mother of Jesus, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and you all have in common? This question is so compelling, you will keep running it over and over in your mind, searching for the answer, even as you continue to read!
Have you ever received a gift that really was for the benefit of the person who gave it to you? Have you ever received a waffle iron from someone in your family who likes waffles (and you are the one who makes breakfast)? Gifts like that are given for the purpose of the giver, not the receiver.
In a way, many of the gifts God gives are like that. Throughout the Bible, when God gives someone something, it is usually for the fulfillment of a purpose God has in mind. Many of the gifts God gives are for God’s purposes. Often, people who receive such gifts from God are not too happy about receiving them – at least not at first. Such gifts have a way of inconveniencing and complicating one’s life.
A good case in point is Mary, the mother of Jesus.
We run a risk of misunderstanding Mary’s response to the angel when he tells her she is going to give birth to a baby born of the Holy Spirit. We are tempted to think that this was welcomed news for Mary. However, this was most likely not welcomed news. This baby - this gift from God - would greatly inconvenience and complicate - and endanger - her life. The birth of baby Jesus looked more like a liability then a gift to Mary at that time, I am sure.
The angel told Mary - an unwed young woman - that she was going to give birth to a baby out of wedlock in what would seem to many people to be an unbelievable way. Her fiancé would undoubtedly assume she had been unfaithful to him. This would mean that he could have her stoned to death if he wanted to. Even if he did not, he surely would not marry her, and her own family would certainly disown her and the baby. This means she would be on her own, forced to make a living any way she could - most likely through prostitution or begging (the only work available for a woman in that condition back then). Even if, by some miracle, none of that happened, she would still face plenty of public ridicule and scorn.
Yet, Mary accepted the gift of the baby Jesus with all the problems and hardships his birth would mean for her, trusting God to work it all out somehow. “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary said to the angel, “May it be to me as you have said.” With that young girl’s acceptance of the gift God wanted to give her, God was able to bring love to earth and into people’s lives in a new way. Because of the birth of Jesus - God-in-the-flesh - we have the gift of salvation - forgiveness of sins and new life with God through his sin-atoning death and life-giving resurrection. That was the purpose behind God giving Mary the gift of a baby. That inconvenient gift given to Mary so long ago was for the purpose of our salvation. Salvation came into the world through a courageous, faithful young woman who had to face ridicule and scorn to bring God’s saving love into all our lives.
That reminds me of another story: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer had a very shiny nose. And, if you ever saw it, you might even say it glowed. That red nose was a gift given to Rudolph - the most important gift ever given to a reindeer - although, at first, it must have seemed like a liability to him - a gift he could do without! All of the other reindeer used to laugh and call him names. They never let poor Rudolph join in any reindeer games. Because of his gift - his red nose - he was ridiculed and scorned. But then, one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say, “Rudolph, that light-emitting beak of yours can help me navigate through the zero-visibility meteorological phenomenon” (or words to that effect). Santa was able to deliver all the toys because of the gift that seemed like such a liability at first to Rudolph. Christmas was saved by Rudolph’s red nose! (I do not know what you make of the story of Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, but I hear it as a theological treatise as to how salvation is brought into the world!)
Now you know what Mary and Rudolph have in common. Where do you fit into the scheme? Well, there may just be a gift given to you by God for divine purposes which seems like nothing more than a liability to you right now - a gift given to you as a means for God to bring the divine love shown in Jesus Christ into the lives of other people. People who experience situations which are inconvenient and which complicate their lives (sometimes even painfully so), often find out that God uses those situations down the road to enable them to reach out to others with the love of Christ in a way they could not have done had they not gone through those situations.
I believe there is a challenge for us in this story - the one about Mary, I mean (although maybe the one about Rudolph, too). The challenge is to get in touch with just such a situation in our own lives - one that we have been through or maybe even one we are going through right now. It is a situation that has inconvenienced you. It is a situation that has complicated your life. It is a situation that has brought you distress and hardship. Maybe it has even made you the object of ridicule and scorn and caused people to avoid you. I believe this story from Luke wants you and me to call just such a situation to mind and, having called it to mind, begin considering whether this situation is not so much a liability as a gift from God - not a gift given for your or my entertainment or enjoyment, but a gift given so that others might have the love of God shown in Jesus Christ brought into their lives through us. If we do begin to sense just such a gift, I think this story from Luke also encourages us to respond as Mary did: “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.”
Now you know what Mary the
mother of Jesus, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and you have in common!
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