Mary, the mother of Jesus was a well known biblical character to me growing up in a Catholic home. She wore blue in every image I saw on the cover of a book or poster and we called her Maria – Greek translation of Mary.

After accepting Jesus as my personal Lord and Saviour, I developed the habit of reading my Bible more. This is how I discovered many truths about God in the lives of different people including Mary. A lot of Christians around the world have a specific perception about Mary, it’s important to focus on what the Bible actually says about her.

There is a lot to be admired about Mary’s character – she was pure (Matthew 1:18, 20, 23; Luke 1:27,34), prudent (Luke 2:19, 51), humble (Luke 1:48), faithful (Luke 1:45; John 2:5), a good mother (Luke 2:45) and a servant of God (Luke 1:38). As a woman and parent, I have learned a lot about the character of Mary the mother of Jesus in the way she allowed Jesus to fulfill His calling and let God’s will be done. I’m sure there’s more to unpack from Mary’s life. I can only imagine what it would have been like in those days if the community found out that Mary, a virgin, and engaged to Joseph was pregnant with the Son of God. Nothing came in the way of God’s plan for the redemption of humanity. In Luke 1 Mary is described as the favoured one, the Holy Spirit would come upon her and the Most High would overshadow her (Luke 1:35).

Mary had a support system, Elizabeth, who shared in her joy Mary visited her during her third trimester.

Mary provided Elizabeth a space so safe that the baby (John) leaped in her womb at the sound of
Mary’s greeting ( v44). Mary received the word of God and rejoiced in it by offering a song of praise,
“My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for He has looked on the humble
estate of His servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed” (v47,48).

Mary knew that her firstborn son would be great because of what the Lord had said about Him.

When the shepherds saw baby Jesus and spoke of what they had been told, Mary treasured up all these things,
pondering them in her heart (Luke 2:19). I wonder what was going through Mary’s mind in that moment. In the temple, when Jesus was presented to the Lord, “… his father and his mother marvelled at what
was said about him” (v33). The Lord God our creator has said something about every child and what a
blessing it is to partner with God in the plans that He has for children.

Mary was an active parent in Jesus’ life from His birth, heartbreaking cruel death on the cross to His resurrection.

There isn’t much written in the gospels about the parental role Joseph played but we can
assume that Mary had a huge responsibility raising other children and knew what a great honour it was
to be the mother of God’s beloved Son. Given all that I’ve read about Mary, my five burning questions
are:

1. Describe the things you treasured and pondered in your heart?
2. What was going through your mind when Jesus got lost in the temple?
3. How did you handle it when or if people gave you “the look” or gossiped about you?
4. What advice would you give to a teenaged girl, young single mom, a barren woman and a married woman?
5. What were you thinking as you saw Jesus dying on the cross and how did you explain his death to his siblings?