If you were to look back over this year in your life, what would you highlight, celebrate and remember? What if you were to take some time to reflect on your whole life? What events do you remember most clearly? What highlights and achievements would you celebrate? What stands out to you now as formational and significant, though at the time seemed disappointing, painful, or even tragic?
In worship on the Sundays leading to Christmas we’ll start with the last mention of Mary in Scripture and move back in time each week until we arrive with Mary at her son’s birth in Bethlehem. We’ll travel back through Mary’s experiences and memories to a not-so-silent night, when a young mother was unexpectedly chosen by God to bring the Christ Child into the world.
In looking back over her life, Mary would have discovered that God doesn’t promise a perfect, peaceful life, nor too many silent, holy nights. Scripture tells us that she was blessed, God-favored, and grace-filled, yet endured hardsh
