A Mother's Heart

Can you imagine being the mother of our Lord? Mary was "highly favored". (Luke 1:28) I should say so! Any child is a gift from God. But can you imagine being the woman who was given THE Gift? She was just a young girl when the Holy Spirit came upon her. It is speculated that she was probably between 14 and 17 years old, just a baby herself. But this girl was a godly girl. She was a devout Jewish young lady who loved Jehovah God. She was a servant of the Most High. And she was chosen to be the mother of Jesus Christ. WOW! I know how I feel about my own son. He is 28 now. Jesus was 33 when He went to the cross to die for our sins, including the sins of Mary His mother. She wasn't saved and taken to heaven just because she was the mother of Jesus. She had to have her sins forgiven in the same way as every other Christian who will be in heaven for all eternity. There was no good work that she could do to earn salvation and her place in heaven, not even bearing God's only Son! Now, if one could get to heaven on their own merits, Mary was the number one prime candidate for this type of works' salvation. How much better work is there than to bear God's Son? And she was obedient in the fact that she and Joseph raised Jesus in a devout Jewish home. They were good parents, faithful to bring Him up according to all the Law. If you could get to heaven by good deeds, this would surely qualify. But no, Mary had to come to the cross of Christ for forgiveness of sins. She had to look upon Jesus as more than just her precious Son. She had to look to Him in paying her sin debt. She had to admit her sin and ask Jesus to cover those sins with His blood. There came a time when she had to look upon the cross as something more than just a means of her Son's suffering. As painful as it was for her to watch her Child in such horrendous agony, she would have had to thank a holy God for sending that Child of hers to the cross to suffer so, in order for her to be in right relationship with her Father! She had to put aside the pity of watching her Son suffer, and even praise God for that suffering, that shedding of perfect blood, the only blood that could cover her sins. If she never turned to Jesus' death on the cross and viewed it in light of salvation, and asked God to save her, then she would not have gone to heaven. She would be in hell along with every single other person who rejects the Gift of eternal life. It's hard to imagine. If it were Joshua, would I ever be able to separate my pain of watching him be tortured, beaten beyond recognition, nailed to a cross and hung there in agony until death, and be able to lay my own heartache aside long enough to thank Jehovah God for it? Every Christian shutters when we think of what Jesus suffered so that we could go to heaven and be with Him for all eternity. But even so, we are still very grateful that He did. We know that if He had not been willing to do that, we would all spend eternity in hell, and rightly so. That causes us to rejoice in the fact that He did do it for us, and rejoice that He rose from the dead to be exalted to the right hand of God the Father. When Peter told Jesus that He would never go to the cross, Jesus said to him, "Get thee behind me Satan!". (Matthew 16:23, Mark 8:33) Would He have not said the same thing to His mother, had she wanted to stop Him from dying? Of course He would. And God didn't offer Mary a special way to get into heaven just because she was Jesus' mother. No, she had to come to the cross the same as everyone else in heaven. As a child of God, saved by grace through faith, she had to have praised God for sending His only Son down here to die for her sins. But as the mother of this Son, I imagine that the pain never left her. Simeon told her when Jesus was just a little baby, that a sword would pierce her own soul. (Luke 2:35) But would she have wanted to stop it when that day finally came and she was faced with the fact that her Child, the spotless Lamb of God, was going to suffer for the taking away of the sins of the world? (John 1:29) Did she want to scream out "NO!"? Whatever her thoughts were, she knew that Jesus had to go...it was why He came in the first place.
It makes me think about how tightly we hang on to our own children. Even when they are grown, we can tend to want to shelter them from what God is allowing in their lives. NEVER pity your child right out of the will of God! God may be bringing about something in your child's life that will bring great honor to the King! Maybe it is something painful that will save their life later on down the road. Maybe it is a critical step in their being broken bread and poured out wine in service to their Master. Maybe it is something horribly painful that will be the catalyst used in bringing about their very salvation! Maybe God is raising up another Martin Luther, or one for our day like John MacArthur. Would you want to stand in the way of your child being raised up by God to be used mightily for His kingdom, His glory? Does God not have the right to choose whatever He wants to do in your child's life, whether you understand it or not? Whether you agree with it or not? Of course He does! It's natural to hurt for your child but you cannot let that stand in opposition to what God is trying to accomplish. Don't put your arm around your child and lead him/her right out of the will of Jehovah! Love them, pray for them, strengthen them in the midst of it. But just like Mary must have done where her own Son was concerned, thank your heavenly Father for whatever He chooses, and praise His holy name through your tears. In this, God is well pleased!