What Did Mary Know and When Did She Know It?

The Anniciation is one of the favorite parts of the Christmas story.  Short and sweet Gabriel tells Mary about the upcoming birth.  FRom Luke 1 –

²⁶And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, ²⁷To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. ²⁸And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. ²⁹And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. ³⁰And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. ³¹And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. ³²He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: ³³And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. ³⁴Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? ³⁵And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God……… ³⁸And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

Pretty sparse stuff – good stuff but sparse.  Her faithful reply, let it be according to your word has always been a commendable and praiseworthy response that faithful Christians down through the ages have tried to emulate.  But there was a lot left out.  He would be a Savior, he would be great, and would reign over the house of David.  What about he would be despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief?  What about a cross and tomb?  Lots of stuff left out.

Mark Lowry picked up on some of that with his song “Mary Did You Know?”  According to Wikepdedia Mark Lowry wrote the words in 1984 when his pastor asked him to write the program for the living Christmas tree choir presentation. The music was written by Buddy Greene.   This is my cover of “Mary Did You Know?”.

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