What did Mary worry about after her baby was born?
Gasp and sacrilege! How dare I entertain the idea of the mother of God worrying about the divine child entrusted to her care. Until I remember that, though this baby boy was fully divine and fully human, his mother was not.
The divinity of Jesus came from the Holy Spirit, who is God. The humanity of Jesus came from Mary, who was wholly human.
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit didn’t have to worry—it’s a perk of being the triune God.
But Mary—she’s a different story. Especially in light of her story.
She was a first time mom. An unwed teenager.
She endured a grueling donkey ride late in her pregnancy.
She went through labor and delivery in a stable without electricity or running water.
Her baby slept in the manger where hungry animals bellied up for breakfast.
Other than those immediate, trifling matters, what did Mary worry about when they took their baby home?
Infanticide. The Magi had told Herod the Great that they were going to worship a great king born in Bethlehem in Judea. To stomp out the competition, Herod the Great, ruler of Judea, ordered the slaughter of all baby boys in Bethlehem ages 2 and younger (Matthew 2:16).
Illegal immigration. God warned Joseph of what Herod was about to before it happened, so Joseph and his family fled to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-14)—the same Egypt where the Israelites had been enslaved before God appointed Moses lead them to freedom. Perhaps not a country that welcomed Jewish illegal aliens.
Poverty. Once Herod died, God spoke to Joseph in another dream. He moved his family, not to Judea, but to Nazareth in Galilee (Matthew 2:19-23) because he didn’t trust Judea’s new ruler. They may have settled in Nazareth because it was small and almost inaccessible, with only one water source. A great place to hide, but not so great for supporting a family. Even if Joseph earned a respectable wage, his family’s standard of living would be abject poverty in today’s world.
Disease and death. Germs were a thing in Jesus’ day. Germ theory was not. Infection was a thing. Hand washing was not. Outbreaks of disease were a thing. Vaccinations were not. Bearing many children was encouraged because high infant mortality rate was a thing, too.
Photo credit: Grant Whitty on Unsplash.com
Based on my experience as a mother, Mary’s worries weren’t much different from those of parents raising kids with special needs:
We worry when doctors say our children have conditions incompatible with life.
We worry about moving to a different state or country for better access to medical care, therapy or schooling for our kids.
We worry about how to pay for what our children need to live their best lives.
We worry because a pandemic has changed our lives and brought us face-to-face with disease and death like never before in living memory.
Instead of asking What did Mary worry about?, maybe this is what I should ask instead: What did Mary, a human mom like me and you, do with her worries?
Luke 2: 19 and 51 both record that Mary “treasured these things in her heart.” These things being the witness of the shepherds concerning her infant son (vs. 19) and her 12-year-old son’s response when they found him in “his Father’s house.” These things may also apply to the words of Gabriel the angel, Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, the Magi, and those of Simeon and Anna in the temple.
God knows that parents, including Mary, did and do worry. To counterbalance our human tendency to worry, He wants us to treasure the evidences of His divine hand at work in our children’s lives. Treasuring what God had done, was doing, and would do in and through her Son was Mary’s weapon against worry. It’s our weapon too and our path to peace as we treasure the promise God spoke to Mary about her Son and our Savior.
“…behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son,
and you shall call his name Jesus.
He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.
And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
Luke 1:31-33
Jolene Philo is the author of the Different Dream series for parents of kids with special needs. She speaks at parenting and special needs conferences around the country. She's also the creator and host of the Different Dream website. Sharing Love Abundantly With Special Needs Families: The 5 Love Languages® for Parents Raising Children with Disabilities, which she co-authored with Dr. Gary Chapman, was released in August of 2019 and is available at local bookstores, their bookstore website, and at Amazon.
