Take It With You 03.06.2016

I daresay that all of us who are parents hold some hidden dreams

of the future our children face. Will my son be an architect? Will

my daughter become a pediatrician? Will my grandbabies ever travel

abroad or climb Mt. Kilimanjaro? Will my great-grands attend UNC

or Duke? Whom will my daughter marry? If you are a parent,

grandparent, aunt, uncle, or special family friend of a young person, you

may have just such secret wishes in your heart.

In no part of my imagination can I comprehend what Mary must have

experienced as she stood alongside the cross where her son Jesus

agonized. One wonders how much she knew of His future, how much

He revealed to her over the years, but surely we can assume that she

knew all along He was extraordinary. She witnessed exotic strangers

seek Him in Bethlehem, she was present during His miracle at Cana,

she spent the years of His childhood watching Him play and sleep and

grow. But crucifixion? How could she stand there?

But stand there she did. The Bible is clear: “Near the cross of Jesus

stood His mother” (John 19:25a). Pierced as her soul must have

felt, she stood. There would be no aging Jesus, no marriage, no

grandchildren, none of the comfortingly typical dreams parents hold

dear. He was dying. And still she stood. A life of obedience to God, a

motherhood of wonder and pain. An afternoon of agony.

The Bible doesn’t record any words from Mary that awful hour of

Christ’s death, but Scripture gives us enough insight into her character

to speculate how she may have reacted when she learned her precious

Son had overcome death three days later. She may have declared once

more, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my

Savior!” (Luke 1:46-47)

May we have Mary’s trust in the Lord so that we can stand alongside

our worst fears, knowing that we will forevermore sing God’s praise.

– Shari Finkler