Mary, Did You Know?

12:21 PMHeather

Last week, I referenced this video.


Even if you clicked on the link last week, or you've seen it posted on social media, look again. This video is of the song Mary Did You Know, written by Mark Lowrey in 1984, for a Christmas program at his church.  It was written as narrative only, to fit between songs at that church program.  But, as Lowrey wrote the lyrics, he knew that someday it would become a song.  Finally, in 1991, Buddy Greene wrote the music in about 30 minutes, and Lowrey knew the song was complete.  

So, please watch this video again. Listen again.  To every word.  Maybe close your eyes and soak it in.  Because I can't get it out of my head, and thus we are resting in this song today.  Line by line.  Let's prayerfully linger here... and pause in an effort to bring our focus to Advent.  To the glorious appearing.  The hope that has come.


Mary did you know that your baby boy
Will one day walk on water?
   I wonder.  Did you know that God defies natural law?  That he is supernatural.  That is all powerful.  That which no person can do...God is able. He brings life to the barren, He brings hope to the hopeless.  Nothing is impossible with God.
 
Mary did you know that your baby boy
Will save our sons and daughters?
   Do you believe this?  Do you really BELIEVE God saves?  Are you a saint who can rest because your every single sin was covered and forgiven?  Did you know that God sent his only Son to love you to death?
 
Did you know that your baby boy
Has come to make you new?
   What needs to be made new in your life?  What hope has died?  What peace has escaped you?  What joy has alluded you?  God promises that He is doing a new thing.  Even now, it springs up--do you not perceive it?  He is making a way in your wilderness...and streams in your wasteland (Isaiah 43:18-19). If you are wandering in hunger and thirst and feeling the weight of burdens and loss...hold fast to the God who makes you new.  He makes beautiful things out of dust.  He transforms our heaps of ashes to things of beauty.
 
This child that you've delivered
Will soon deliver you
   What struggle or chains do you need to be freed from?  Grief?  Loss?  Disappointment?  Pain?  Suffering?  Oppression?  Wounds? Sorrows?  He is the Deliverer.  He came to proclaim FREEDOM for the captives and release prisoners from darkness (Isaiah 61:1).  If you feel imprisoned by your circumstances, take heart.  For a baby born thousands of years ago came to bring deliverance.  Eternal freedom.  Call out to your deliverer.
 
Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Will give sight to a blind man?
   In the here and now, we are so blinded to the works of God.  But did you know that He is moving and acting on your behalf, even as you wait (Isaiah 64:4)?  Did you know that when fear and anger and anxiety and sorrow blind you to anything good, to anything peaceful, to anything hopeful...He can give you sight?  He can open your eyes through His love and grace, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, you can fix your eyes on Jesus and begin to SEE him at work.
 
Mary, did you know that your baby boy
Will calm a storm with his hand?
   Did you know that whatever storm swirls around you, consuming you, that He can calm it?  And He can calm you?  Just as Jesus told the winds to be still and the waves to calm down, He will hold you up in the storms of life.  As the lyrics to a song says, sometimes He will actually calm the storm.  And sometimes He calms His child. But he is there, with you, in the center of all that is happening to you.
Did you know that your baby boy
Has walked where angels trod?
   Fully human. Fully God.  Did you know this?  Do you believe this?  That our Jesus knows our temptations and empathizes with our human condition because he has been there and he can thus help us (Hebrews 2:18).  He gets it. And yet, He is big enough to worship because He is fully God (Philippians 2:5-11).
 
And when you kiss your little baby
You've kissed the face of God
   The glory of the gospel is summarized in this lyric.  God.  Come to earth.  Humbly.  As a baby.  To free His people.  To make a way.  To pay the price.  To bridge the gap.  To die so that we might live.  This is no small thing.  May we ponder it anew this Christmas season.  Did you know that God showed us how to live out the gospel by this example?  Becoming a servant.  Loving others.  Extending grace.
 
Oh, Mary did you know
Ooh...

The blind will see,
the deaf will hear,
The dead will live again
The lame will leap,
the dumb will speak,
The praises of the lamb
   Did you know that the Jesus who walked and talked and preached and healed and performed miracles is the same Jesus we serve?  And He is still in the miracle business.  He is still reaching out to touch our lives when we call out to him (Luke 5:12-13).  He is intersecting your life in ways you cannot even see.  Protecting you.  Guiding you.  Singing over you.  Giving you sight.  Allowing you to see and hear and live and leap and speak... oh that we might pause enough this Advent season to consider it all.  And still our hearts so that we might burst forth joyful praise.  That we serve a Mighty God who is able.
 
Mary did you know that your baby boy
Is Lord of all creation?
   Did you know that He is Lord of ALL Creation?  There is none above Him.  All that exists came into being at the sound of His voice.  He created us for a purpose (Ephesians 2:10).  He made us perfectly and wonderfully and fearfully (Psalm 139).  And the same God who carved out the oceans and knows all the stars by name also knows the number of hairs on your head.  And Jesus...that Jesus who came as a baby, He now lives to intercede for YOU, at the right hand of His father (Hebrews 7:25).
 
Mary did you know that your baby boy
Will one day rule the nations?
   Did you know that at the sound of Jesus' name, every knee will bow.  EVERY tongue will confess that He is Lord (Philippians 2:9-11)?  It may not seem true now, but Jesus appeared on this earth once...and He will appear again.  To create a new heaven and a new earth and to rule forever (2 Peter 3:13), and we are co-heirs of this Kingdom.  He will rule.  Forever.  And ever.  And ever.  And all diseases will disappear.  All tears will be gone.  All wrongs will be righted.  There will be no more hunger or famine or orphan or slave.  And He will right every wrong.
Did you know that your Baby Boy
Is Heaven's perfect Lamb?
  Like the ram caught in the thicket so that Abraham could spare Isaac, Jesus is the substitute sacrifice.  He who was without sin took on our sins so that we could be forgiven.  The Old Testament points to the Jesus to come.  It's all about Him.  Heaven's perfect lamb...offered for us.  Did you know this?  Do you believe it?  Do you swim deep and long and hard in the grace of God?  Freed from religion and burdens and weariness?  Because that is why that baby boy came.  To be the Lamb, sacrificed on the altar. Christmas points toward Easter.  He lived to die.  And all of mankind's history pivots on this birth...B.C. to A.D.  When what had been was lost in what will be and hope for every person was born with the intention to die.  So that we might live.
  
This sleeping child you're holding
Is the great I am
   Did you know HE is the GREAT I Am?  He announced Himself as so to Moses in the desert (Exodus 3:14).  And He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).  He says whatever you lack, He is.  If you are troubled, I AM peace.  If you need protection, I AM your shield.  If you need direction, I AM your wisdom. If you need comfort, I AM the lifter of your head.  If you are weak, I AM your strength.  If you need provision, I AM your provider.  If you need salvation, I AM your salvation.  If you feel confused and angry and sad and lonely, I AM all that you need. Whatever state you are in or circumstance you are facing, He is I AM.

The Great I AM.  Not was.  Or will be.

He is I AM.  Present tense.  Here and now.  ALWAYS. Heaven come to earth.  The hope of the ages.  The light in our darkness.  The worth for our soul.  The remedy for what ails us.  The fulfillment of all prophecy.  The One who delights in us, rejoices over us with singing, and quiets us with his love (Zephaniah 3:17).

I AM.

Did you know?

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