Chat With Mary

What if you could have a cup of tea and a chat with Mary?

Roll some cookie dough or wrap a few gifts  together?

What kind of a neighbor do you think was; what sort of friend? 

Did she bubble over with the joy of youth, the first to make a joke, the instigator of pranks?

Or maybe she was a young woman of wisdom, with the gravity of 'knowing' to mark her demeanor. 

Did she parent with infinite calm, or did she occasionally lose it? 

I wonder if she was 'an excellent wife, who can find'  to Joseph. 

This cheap plastic figure of her sits on my mantle, reminding me to ponder and treasure up.

I make myself stop running Christmas-crazy and consider again her response to the angel who brought 

news that would turn her world upside down and inside out. 

"I am the Lord's servant ... may it happen to me as you've said."

And I ask the Lord to give me the same beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit - 

what a special Christmas gift that would be!

* a great sermon on Mary here