“Mary did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new…the child that you delivered will soon deliver you?”

Mark Lowry

Have you ever wondered why God the Father chose Mary as the mother of Jesus? I have been reflecting on the kind of person Mary was and came up with an interesting discovery. MARY WAS A THINKER.

Mary was a thinker who mediated on life. She spent a lot of time thinking about events as they happened and even before they happened and kept them like pieces of a puzzle stored up in her heart for future reflection. I wonder if that’s why God chose her because he knew that she would bring up Jesus his Son to be a thinker too as one who meditated on events as they happened and before they did. This was perhaps in order to proper think through events as well as gaining heaven’s perspective on them and how to operate.

Mary’s thinking patterns can be discerned particularly from St. Luke 1 & 2. Firstly, when the angel Gabriel came and greeted her telling her that the Lord was with her and she was favoured, the text tells us that she tried to think what he meant (v.29). She was not so concerned about seeing the angel but was concerned about the meaning of his words. Secondly, when told that she would not only conceive but give birth to a very great son/King whose Kingdom would never end, she asked “But how can this happen? I am a virgin” (v.34). She only questioned how this conception would come to pass, not the seemingly impossibility of her son becoming an eternal King. Thirdly after being reassured that nothing is impossible with God as His word cannot fail (v.37), she indicates that she is the ‘Lord’s servant’ and may everything that is said about her come true, no ifs or buts. This demonstrates great thought and faith!! She did not even ask God to speak to Joseph and save her reputation.

Fourthly, Mary hurries to visit Elizabeth who has spent her entire life praying and looking to God for answers to prayer. Together with Elizabeth more thinking, reflection and praising of God took place. Listen to the Magnificat: Mary’s Song of Praise which is a song that reflects great thought on who God is. God of our ancestors who is the promise keeper who over generations has shown mercy, dethrones the proud, exalts the humble and provides for the hungry. This pattern showed that Mary was always concerned about the dispossessed, the downtrodden, the humble and God restoring them to dignity. Is it any wonder that Jesus was always comfortable around these persons,  transforming their lives? Fifthly, at Jesus’ birth, Mary the thinker heard the astonishing story of the shepherds and added it to her heart’s treasure box and thought about these events often. Sixthly, during Jesus infancy she was given lots of opportunity to think: at his dedication Simeon’s and Anna’s words would have taken deep root and resurfaced at crucifixion. Interestingly, notice that after this meeting we are told in Luke 2:40 that when Mary and Joseph carried Jesus home he not only grew but was filled with wisdom and God’s favour was on him. This was before he was twelve and his “planned” three day meeting listening and questioning the teachers in the temple that crippled his parents’ ability to think. Therefore between 8 days old and 12 years, Mary and Joseph must have invested a lot of time in teaching Jesus to think about, reflect on and question everyday events revealing the deep mind of God in preparation for his future role as Saviour.

Finally, at 12 years  his “planned” meeting demonstrated great thought and wisdom that amazed them all.  When Jesus returned home with his parents, he was obedient and note again his mother stored up all these things [that happened previously] in her heart. What was the result of this? We are told that Jesus grew [more] in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and all people (2:52).

Therefore, I put it to you that God chose Mary the thinker to help Jesus become the man who he needed to be, i.e., a man who carefully thought about everything: his interaction with the people, sought God out to get his daily game plan and then acted with power and conviction.

What about us? Are we thinkers? Do we think about events and how God is speaking to us through them? Will we allow God to transform our thinking and renew our minds with His words? How will our thinking transform our lives, our families and our world?

Prayer

Dear Creator God we give you back our thinking and our thoughts. Oftentimes we commit so much sin in our thoughts and minds. We confess our sins and “demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor.10: 5). Please transform our minds and fill them with your creative spirit so that we can change our world for the better. In Jesus name, Amen.