Meditations on the Mysteries: The Nativity and Faith

Emily DeArdo::Catholic Poster Girl

As the country ramps up for the Christmas (shopping) season, it’s apropos to consider the event that leads to the celebrating: The Nativity.

Just about everyone knows how this story starts: “In those days, Caesar Augustus…” We think we know the story, right? Angels, shepherds, stars, kings, gold, frankincense, myrrh.

But if I was Mary, I would’ve been scared out of my mind.

Think about it: she’s a teenager, she’s pregnant with the Son of God. It took awhile to convince her husband of this, but eventually she got some help from an angel. So she and Joseph are preparing for this very important birth in Nazareth.

Then they’re told they have to travel 80 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Now, my car can do 80 miles in an hour and change. I don’t think donkeys go quite that fast. So Mary, who is very, very pregnant, is on the back of a donkey, for a multi-day journey to a place she was probably never been. Oh, and they may or may not have a room. There was no Travelocity for them so she and Joseph are counting on there being space for them.

Except: there’s not. At the end of that probably very uncomfortable journey, there’s no room at the inn. This part always makes me a bit perturbed. There was no room for a really, really pregnant young girl? No corner of the kitchen, where at least she’d be warm and have other women around her? Nope. Nothing.

Except that stable. I’ve been in barns, and they are not places I’d want to give birth (good thing germ theory wasn’t around in 1 BC). {Tweet This} But that’s all there is, and Mary’s alone–no other women are there to help her. She probably wanted her mother. And Joseph? He was probably terrified. His wife is giving birth to the Son of God, the Messiah, and it has to be in a stable? Where is this in the plan?

Indeed. Where is this in the plan?

It’s all there. God knew it was going to happen this way. And Mary and Joseph have faith enough to know that, too. They might not know why God wants His son born in a stable, instead of a nice, warm room at an inn. But they know there is a reason for it, even if God’s not sharing it with them.

So in that stable, 80 miles from home, Mary gives birth to Jesus. Instead of the family she thought would be around her, she has shepherds, and angels singing in the sky above them. Christ’s birth is witnessed by plain, ordinary people, doing their jobs on a cold December night. They had faith, too, that if they listened in what the angel told them, they’d find this little family huddled in a stable nearby. Their faith is rewarded.

Mary’s and Joseph’s is, too. What the angel told both of them has come to pass–they have a son, who is the Son of God, the one who will save them from their sins. Here, in this dark and gloomy place, there’s a baby. There is hope and joy.

Sometimes we’re on that road, too, or in that stable. We don’t know what the heck is going on. We definitely did not picture things turning out like this. We want the warm room and clean sheets. We want our family to help. We want assurance that everything is going to happen the way it’s “supposed” to.

But who says what’s “supposed” to happen? Shouldn’t the King of Kings be born in a palace, with attendants and the best of everything? Doesn’t that sound like what’s “supposed” to happen to a child like that?

In this Advent season, let’s take our example from Mary and Joseph, who trusted, who had faith. Let’s ask Mary to give us faith like hers.

Emily has been scribbling down words since she was old enough to hold a pen, but now does most of her scribbling at Catholic Poster Girl. A lifelong Catholic, she received her BA in English Literature and Political Science from Capital University, in her hometown of Columbus, in 2004. She has one godson and is the oldest of three kids.