December 7, 2022 - Good Morning! It’s Wednesday, December 7.
My daughter was 27 when she got married, my wife was 20 when we tied the knot, and my mom wed my dad at the tender young age of 17. The history of my family parallels the changes in our culture regarding average marriage ages and leads us to the Christmas question - how old was Mary when she gave birth to Jesus?
The Bible does not include Mary's age in the nativity story. When we find details missing in a Bible story perhaps it's because those details were common knowledge at the time of the writing. In other words, 1st Century readers would have been well aware of the age that Jewish girls typically got married in that culture. And what was that age? History tells us it was between 12 and 14. We can assume with some confidence, then, that Mary was a young teenager when she gave birth to the Son of God that night in Bethlehem.
But despite her young age, Mary exhibited a mature faith, a mature spirit. In Luke 1:38 she shows us that faith when, after receiving amazing news from the angel Gabriel, she responds, "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said." And in Luke 1:46 we hear the beginnings of Mary's song of praise, "The Magnificat" - My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
We hear nothing from Mary in the Matthew story and nothing more in the one from Luke. Perhaps we learn why that is when we read Luke 2:19 - But Mary treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.
Thoughts to ponder and treasure this morning.
Meet you back here tomorrow,
Bro. David
dmathis@fbccenter.org
Come to Bethlehem and meet Mary and all the Nativity characters this Saturday and Sunday night at First Baptist Center. Call 936.598.5605 or 979.533.1575 for more info or to reserve your free tickets.
