Natalie Lynn Alday
I once pondered about older sitcoms from the 1960’s and 1970’s. I recollect watching
the Mary Tyler Moore Show and googled the theme song “Love is All Around” by Sonny Curtis.
How about Marlo Thomas in “That Girl!”? For those of you who do not know who or what I am
talking about, ask someone who was born before 1978 and they can catch you up or, of course,
you could always use some form of technology to look it up if you are interested. These two
shows were T.V. comedies (or sitcoms) about single, individual, independent women. If you
take time to listen to the theme song, “That Girl” – which is also the name of the sitcom that
Marlo Thomas played Anne Marie – you will begin to see how these preceding ideas bring us to
the point at hand, beginning below with the story of the mother of Jesus, Mary.
Over 2000 years ago, Mary, written about in the New Testament, was engaged (or
betrothed) to Joseph, a carpenter. She was incredibly young when she found out that she
would become Jesus’ mother. Why did God choose her to be Jesus’ mother? Although Mary
was just a teen during this time, she had a sound mind, as well as ‘a mind of her own’. Don’t
you think that she must have showed a great deal of ‘character’ for God to have chosen her for
this significant role? How would that have felt to have been “the chosen mother of Jesus?”
Do you feel that you must be a perfect person for God to choose you? Do you feel that
you must fit into a specific mold for God to use you? No way! God uses and has used all kinds of
people to do His work. God chooses the simple and the weak. He chooses the humble and the
broken-hearted. In the New American Standard Bible (NASB), 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 says “(26)
For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not
many mighty, not many noble; (27) but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to
shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which
are strong, (28) and the base things of the world and the despised God has CHOSEN, the things
that are not, so that HE may nullify the things that are, (29) so that NO MAN MAY BOAST before
God. (30) But by HIS doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and
righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, (31) so that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who
boasts, BOAST IN THE LORD’.”
As I began to read and compare the two major accounts of the birth of Jesus, I noticed
that I was seeing two different points of view. The first account, found in the gospel of Matthew
(my son’s name), reveals this story from Joseph’s point of view. An angel appears to Joseph in
Matthew 1:20 and then again in a dream in Matthew 2:13. In the second account of Jesus’
birth, we see that in the gospel of Luke he sees things from Mary’s viewpoint. Mary hears from
an angel in Luke 1:26-27 and ponders the visiting shepherds’ words in Luke 2:19. Now, Luke was
a Gentile and Matthew, a Jew – two different viewpoints of the same story. What is the adage?
“Two heads are better than one.” Think about witnesses to an event, such as a football game.
We all, at times, witness events from a different angle or perspective? In a football game, some
see it from the field and some from the sidelines. Witnesses bring together their accounts,
making the story full of detail.
Why Mary, though? In Luke 1:28, the greeting angel referred to her as being “highly
favored”. Seeing that Mary was “greatly troubled,” the angel consoles her as the message of
Jesus’ birth unfolds. She had questions, and she asked them. She did not hold back. As the
answers were given to her and as the angel reminded her that “nothing was impossible with
God,” she accepted His calling on her life and honored Him by saying that she was “the Lord’s
servant.” With authority, she agreed with the angel’s words and basically said “let it be so.” She
was devoted to God and she declared that He was the one in control. Why not, Mary? She
listened to God’s calling and walked in His ways.
“Whom God calls, He equips.”