2024_12_30 Insight Post- Kim Feld
This week’s reading- Matthew 1, Matthew 2, Matthew 12:46-50, Luke 1, Luke 2, John 2:1-12, John 19:25-27, Acts 1:14
Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas! It is hard to believe we are getting ready to ring in 2025.
For the last week of 2024, we will focus on Mary, the mother of Jesus. Just as I do with Joseph, I wonder what about Mary caused God to pick her for such a role in His redemption story. She was devoted to God and desired to serve Him with all she had to offer. Mary was faithful in her relationship with God and in her role as a mother. She was present when Jesus took His first breath and when He took His last.
God could have introduced Jesus onto the scene as a full-grown man, but He chose to have Him come as a baby and grow into adulthood. Jesus experienced all that we as humans experience, including being part of a family. This choice makes Jesus not just a distant figure, but someone who truly understands the joys and sorrows of family life, just like us.
Mary, along with all mothers, was given an enormous responsibility. The story of Jesus and Mary at the wedding in Cana has always been a favorite of mine because it shows the relationship between a mother and son so well. It seems that Mary knew what Jesus was capable of but still asserted herself as his mom. I love that Jesus honored her wishes and helped save the bride and groom from the embarrassment of running out of wine for the celebration. That story, with its beautiful touch of humanity, also carries a strong sense of the divine, reminding us that God is present in our everyday lives.
I believe that Mary’s beautiful faithfulness to God caught His attention. I don’t know how she lived that out, but when the angel Gabriel visited her and told her she was being given an enormous task to accomplish, she immediately said, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.”
Mary’s faithfulness is challenging and inspiring. It prompts us to ask ourselves, ‘does God see you and I as faithful? Can He trust us with a God-sized task?’ As we head toward a new year, let’s not just reflect, but actively evaluate our relationship with Jesus and how we can increase our faithfulness. This is not just a call to reflection, but a call to action, to strive for a deeper, more faithful relationship with God.
Kim Feld
Executive Director of Education and Outreach