This week, until 20 December, you can purchase No Ordinary Man (book 1) from Kevin Mayhew Ltd at a 10 per cent discount, using the code ORDINARY110 when ordering the title from the company’s website. With the book normally retailing at £24.99, that’s a saving of £2.50. Just type the code into the relevant box at the online checkout between the dates given.
Here, meanwhile, is the sixth of the sessions I’ll be posting this week from the book, to run alongside this promotion.
WHAT A DAY IT’S BEEN!
Reading
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for him in the inn. Luke 2:1-7
The meditation of Mary, mother of Jesus
What a day it’s been!
I’m shattered, exhausted,
and yet I’m over the moon!
Does that sound strange?
Well, let me tell you what happened, then you’ll understand.
It could hardly have started worse,
arriving in Bethlehem like that to find the place packed.
My heart sank.
I knew we wouldn’t find anywhere, not a chance,
but Joseph wouldn’t have it.
‘Next time,’ he kept saying, ‘you’ll see.’
Next time indeed!
A stable, that’s what we ended up with –
hardly the accommodation I had in mind!
It wouldn’t have mattered, mind you,
not in the usual run of things,
but I was nine months pregnant
and my pains had started that morning,
getting stronger by the minute.
I was in agony by the end, you can imagine,
just about desperate by then,
not bothered where we stopped
just so long as I could rest.
That’s why we accepted the innkeeper’s offer,
makeshift though it was.
I lay there with cattle breathing down my neck,
straw prickling my back,
and what felt like a gale whistling beneath the door –
but I didn’t care;
I didn’t care about anything by then,
just wanted the baby to be born.
Poor Joseph, he was beside himself.
No idea how to cope or what to do next,
but thankfully one of the women from the inn took pity on us.
You’ll never know how good it was
to see her kindly reassuring face,
her confident smile beaming down at me
through the haze of pain.
It seemed like an eternity for all that,
but it wasn’t long really.
And then that sound,
that wonderful exhilarating sound,
my son, Jesus, crying!
I didn’t want to let go of him,
but I had to, of course, eventually.
I was exhausted,
just about all in.
So I wrapped him in strips of cloth
and laid him in a manger.
Sleep came easy after that,
blissful peace at last,
but a moment ago I woke with a start,
remembering those words in that vision I had –
‘And they shall name him Emmanuel,
God with us’.
My child, Emmanuel?
Can it really be true?
God come to his people?
He’s everything to me, I admit that,
I could gladly worship him.
But others? I wonder.
Time alone will tell, I suppose.
Anyway, no more time for talking, I need my sleep.
But wait, who’s this knocking on the door?
Shepherds!
What on earth can they want at this time of night?
I don’t know.
What a day it’s been!
What a day!
Prayer
Almighty God,
you are greater than our minds can fathom,
higher than our highest thoughts,
sovereign over all,
worthy of praise and honour.
Forgive us that all too often
we have lost our sense of awe and wonder before you.
Speak to us, as you spoke to Mary,
and help us to catch a new sense
of who you are and all you have done through Jesus.
Help us to magnify your name,
singing your praises
and telling of your greatness.
Amen.