Pull Up A Chair, Ask Me Anything

GOING DEEPER

When I entered the Nativity as Mary on Sunday, one thing surprised me - how much she needed other people to help her believe her own life. I wrote it out almost as a list. First Elizabeth. Then the angel who came to Joseph. Then that uncle of Joseph’s who remembered the old prophecy in Micah. And then, on the night itself, a barn full of shepherds who showed up saying they’d heard it too.

What struck me, praying it, was how much Mary needed them right when they showed up. Not because she couldn’t manage without help, but because believing the impossible thing God had asked of her was genuinely hard, and every so often God sent somebody to stand next to her and say, out loud, you’re not crazy. This is real. We believe you. You got this.

Michael put his finger on it in the comments this week. He said if it were him, he’d have had moments of doubt, wondering if the whole calling was just delusions of grandeur. Of course he would. I would have, too. Th…