Although last month seems like an ideal time to discuss the conception of Christ and the Lord’s choice of mothers, I’m going to buck the trend and do it in January. Of course, the Sunday School lesson for this week is a big part of the cause of the subject. Still, I’ve always been a rebel, so why not continue to go against the grain?
We’ve discussed Elisabeth and the divine announcement of her pregnancy with John the Baptist. Shortly after, Gabriel, the same angel who visited Zacharias, came to Mary. While I studied the passages on Elisabeth, several questions came to mind.
The world today seems to encourage putting off childbearing for several years. Women today (we are told) need to get an education, then a career, then maybe save up some money. Wisdom and experience (we hear) is the best way to parent a child. Those who marry and give birth at an early age are depriving their children of some vital experience and perspectives.
I, of course, am one of those ‘evil’ young mothers, so I hear this a lot. While I was pregnant with my first child, I actually had a strange woman approach me and bemoan the plight of teen pregnancies and how terrible such a thing was. I nodded and said, “Yes, I agree, it’s terrible when babies have babies. Good thing I’m over 21,” and left. Now, I definitely agree that the teen years is not the right time to become a parent, but I’ve heard others – including several of my Mormon and nonMormon family members – bemoan the way I am ‘wasting’ my youth, and how much better it would be to wait a few years.
My first thought, as I studied Elisabeth and remembered Mary, was that the scriptures seemed to support this. After all, if Christ was to be perfect, did it really matter who his mother was? Elisabeth, on the other hand, was “righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless” (Luke 1:6). Elisabeth was an older woman, past childbearing years, while Mary was young and not even officially married. Wouldn’t John the Baptist need the influence of a righteous mother more than Christ would?
Make no mistake, I never thought that Mary was not righteous. But I wondered, in my mind, how righteous one must be to raise a perfect child….
So as I read through Luke 1:26-35, I took the opportunity to ponder how Mary responded to the news. Immediately, I had a pretty good answer.
Yesterday, I discussed how Zacharias, the righteous husband of Elisabeth, stood in the holiest room of the temple and questioned the words of the angel bearing him news of impending fatherhood. Today, I had the chance to read over Mary’s response to similar news (she was a virgin rather than barren) and compare the two.
Both Zacharias and Mary were troubled, but where Zacharias was afraid, Mary simply thought about the greeting Gabriel gave. One can only imagine how surprising it would be to have an angel call you “highly favored” and “blessed…among women” (Luke 1:28).
In both cases, Gabriel describes the forthcoming pregnancies. Both seem impossible, and both Zacharias and Mary seemed to have some doubts. But where Zacharias asks, “Whereby shall I know this?” – he asks for a sign – Mary marveled in wonder at the seeming impossibility.
Surely the Holy Ghost confirmed to both the truth of the angel’s mission and words. I found the response of the two intriguing. In fact, if you are looking for a righteous woman’s response, remember Sarah, wife of Abraham, who was so startled at the news she would bear a child that she “laughed within herself” (Genesis 18:12).
But don’t just listen to my interpretation – check out a few references of your own. Nephi calls her “most beautiful and fair above all other virgins” (1 Nephi 11:15), and Alma refers to her as “a precious and chosen vessel” (Alma 7:10). Since I doubt Nephi was so shallow as to refer to her physical beauty, I imagine that the mother of Christ surely radiated a glow that was beautiful to behold, the spirit of God shone within her so brightly. Finally, Bruce R. McConkie refers to Mary as “the most worthy and spiritually talented of all his spirit daughters” (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary. 3 vols. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965-73, 1:85.).
Mary, it seems, is the type of mother we women should seek to emulate. In fact, she seems to be a woman of great faith that all women can rightfully look up to, and I look forward to learning more about her as we study the New Testament this year.
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