A meaningful Tradition

"But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.”
Luke 1: 30-31

Over the last few years we have taken our boys to A Journey Through Christmas. It is a 15-minute drive through of the Christmas story with live actors and animals. The first stop you come to is the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary. Every year as I watch and listen to the scripture I mentioned above being read, it brings tears to my eyes.
As a mom, I can’t imagine how overwhelmed Mary must have felt about the news the angel shared with her. God chose Mary for a very special purpose. I believe God chooses us specifically for the children he gives us.
There are days where I feel overwhelmed and extremely inadequate for the task at hand, but like Mary, God tells us, “Do not be afraid.”
Mary is a beautiful example of a woman who trusted God with her son. I think the reason I get emotional as I listen is because I know the rest of the story. It just doesn’t end with the joyous and happy celebration of a new-born baby.
Mary as a mother experiences what it is like to have her son face a very cruel death. I also get overwhelmed with the fact that He died for you and me so we could have a personal relationship with him.
At Christmas we think a lot about giving and receiving gifts, so maybe this would be a good time for you to think about receiving a gift of eternal life and forgiveness, if you have not already received that gift.

I wrote this article for our mops newsletter to correspond with our theme for our December meeting which was "Holiday Traditions.”What do you want your family traditions to reflect? 

The drive through the Christmas story has become a tradition for our family as we want our boys to be able to reflect on what Christmas is really about amidst all of the other business of the season.  
We actually took our boys this past weekend to this event, as we watched and listened  to the scene of Mary and Joseph in the manger with the baby, our youngest M was sitting on his dad's lap and he made the comment, "that makes me want to cry" and his dad asked him "why"and he said "because a baby was born". It is interesting as mom was getting a little teary eyed too :)