birthday of Mary

Micah 5:1-4; or Romans 8:28-30; Psalm 13 With delight I rejoice in the Lord; Matthew 1:1-16,18-23

Today we celebrate the Birthday of Mary the Blessed Mother of Jesus.

As much as we love to celebrate birthdays, today surely should be on top of the list of celebrations we would not want to miss.
Have a slice of cake with some ice cream. Indulge yourself, for today we celebrate the birth of the one who will become the door way to salvation.

Through Mary's soul God gains access into Humanity and God becomes part of the human family and enters in to human history, our history.

This is what the genealogy of Jesus is all about. In the gospel of Matthew we start with Abraham and go all the way to the offspring of Mary and there we trace the lines of how God enters into our Family tree and how through the Son of Mary, we are taken up into the household of God.

In our tree that branches outward and upward the branches are coated with the honey of redemption that comes from Christ who is God with us, Emmanuel.

It is because of this member of the human family the lines of sin that have been traced through our past is now overcome by the future mercy that shall flow from the tree of the cross.

Our past no longer holds us bound because through Mary in Christ we now have a future, the future is filled with hope and the dark door tomorrow is thrown wide open and the light from above penetrates and elucidates and invites us to step from the shadows and live fully in the brightness of this new promise, Emmanuel is his name, God with us, God for us, God come to earth to set us free.


Have some cake today. Light a few candles. Enjoy the ice cream. Sing loudly. The shadow of sin and death is broken by the glow of this woman who shall bear the Son, who is the way, the truth, and the life, the light of the world.

All because She says yes, "behold the handmaid of the Lord, be done to me according to thy word." Being open to the word of God, again allows God to have access to humanity. One simple yes, oh what beauty from the lips of this mother whose birth we celebrate today.

All of creation sings, as the psalmist tells us this day, "let me sing of the Lord, He has been good to me...let my heart rejoice in your salvation."

When your past hounds you, stop for a moment; look upward and remember why we celebrate and then let your song lead you on.
Here is a tib bit from a poem called Orchid blossoms

"Just as I wonder
whether it's going to die,
the orchid blossoms

and I can't explain why it
moves my heart, why such pleasure
comes from one small bud
on a long spindly stem, one
blood red gold flower

opening at mid-summer,
tiny, perfect in its hour.

Mary is the one small bud that brings joy to the human race, perfect in it hour.