She looked forward to the year ahead with anticipation. It promised to be the best year of her young life! This was the year her dreams would come true, and she would reach the goal to which she had aspired since she was a small girl. This would be her year!
Then, everything changed. With one unexpected visit, those dreams shape-shifted to something entirely different. Looking back, she realized that they had simply been replaced with God’s dreams. Yet, in the moment — that awesome, terrifying, magnificent, heart-wrenching moment — a large part of her died while the very best part of her began to nurture new life.
One by one, she laid dreams to rest and picked up the new ones. The large wedding she had anticipated for a lifetime? Canceled. The celebratory, blushing walk to the new little home built by her loving husband? No, due to government regulations, the walk would be days’ journey to an unfamiliar city. The birth of her first child tended by a competent midwife with her mother by her side? Not possible. She would have to be alone with only the help of an inexperienced new husband while bringing her Babe into the world. But she wouldn’t be in a comfortable room designed for this lovely rite of passage. No, the inns were all at capacity–a temporary shelter out back was all that was available.
In the midst of it all — the spiritual darkness, a government making demands, kings fighting for the throne, disapproving looks, separation from family and friends, fear for her Child’s health and life, and desperate for sanitary conditions in which to lay her new baby to rest — there was a star. Not a shooting star, announcing itself in a noisy, showy way. Just a bright star, shining with a constant brilliance which spoke to those looking for it, “Follow me, and I’ll lead you to the Incarnate Presence of the same One Who led in a pillar of fire centuries ago.”
Now, two thousand years after, I hear it over and over: “This year is not normal….”, “This Christmas will look different…” and “A Christmas like we’ve never seen before.” Just as Mary stopped to ponder in her heart that Christmas night, I ponder. Is it really so different, after all?