Mary's Letter to Baby Jesus

My Dear Sweet Baby,

My heart trembles when I think about the events surrounding your arrival.

It is not that your birth was so difficult. For generations women like me have received their children as I welcomed you on that day. Every baby comes into this world through a bewildering mixture of pain and joy.

No it is not the physical pain of your arrival that moves most deeply in me. It is the strange mystery surrounding your birth that stirs my spirit and the fear I have for what these things may mean for your future.

What can I tell you of these strange events? Will my words seem to you like the raving of a woman who lives in terror of what others might think? Will you hear only the fear in my words and miss the struggle for faith and trust that lies deeper in my heart?

The world does not put much trust in angel visions of the night. People are not likely to be impressed with stories of strange shepherds appearing miraculously to celebrate your birth. My people are practical, hardworking, ordinary people. We have never been anything special. No one destined for greatness would ever be born in our midst.

And yet, there were signs…so many signs…so many words that spoke of you as one who would be great and who would know God in such a deep and strong way. These words spoke of your coming to bring hope and light for all people. They said you would bring salvation to the world.

I almost hesitate to tell you of these things. The words seem so unbelievable. Even now I wonder if I heard properly. Perhaps I only imagined all this talk of your greatness. Perhaps I should be still and tell nothing of the time the angel Gabriel came and promised your birth. Perhaps I should stay silent about that holy night when your birth was celebrated by a heavenly host and shepherds knelt at your bedside.

We are such poor people. We have no power. Why would God’s anointed be found in such humble circumstances? How could the world possibly be expected to embrace a messiah born in a stable?

The world to which you have come is a confusing and troubling place. I know how this world receives messengers of God. People seldom welcome gifts of tenderness and love with the openness and embrace you might hope for. There is always pain and struggle for tellers of the truth. Love often meets violence and hatred in a world that is frequently cold and harsh. The words the angel Gabriel spoke about you cast fear into my heart.


I want to protect you from the suffering I hear in the angel’s words. I want my tears to wash away the dark force of tragedy I see overshadowing your life. God may be kind. And God may be good to us. But I know that God does not always make things easy, especially for those who choose to live in love and call others to open to the force of love that is God. I want to save you from the hard road I fear may lie ahead.

But what can I do against God? How can I stop God’s will from unfolding as God plans? If you are God’s chosen one, I must not get in the way. I will not resist God’s will for your life, even though my heart breaks to think of the lonely way I see unfolding from your birth.

So, I ponder all these things. I wonder what words can I give you in which you might find strength. What prayer can I offer that will sustain you through the dark days that will surely come?

My prayer for you sweet child is that you may grow to hear deeply in your heart words I learned as a child. They are words my mother taught me from our holy book where the poet says that

Our steps are made firm by the Lord,
when he delights in our way;
though we stumble we shall not fall headlong,
for the Lord holds us by the hand.
(Psalm 37:23,24)

I pray for you sweet child that you may always know that God delights in you and, even when you may stumble, or be pushed, the Lord holds you by your hand.

You see my child our problem is that we forget who we are. We forget that we are God’s precious gift. And the Giver will never let the gift be destroyed. You may be hurt; you may be pushed into dark and painful places; you may feel absolutely forsaken and alone, but the hand of God never lets you go. God is always with you, holding you, surrounding you with love and mercy.

When we know God’s power of love, we find the beauty and truth that is God’s presence. You are this beauty. You are the perfect image of God. In you we see who we were created to become. We see our true selves. We see in you, little baby Jesus, the destiny for which our lives came into being. So, even when you struggle with the harshness of the world, do not forget who you are. Do not forget that you are held and cherished.

As you feel my arms cradling you against my breast with all the tenderness and love you could ever imagine, I pray you may know God holds us all in this same way. When people come to hurt you, when they try to make you feel small, or to take away your beauty, know that the tenderness of God is stronger and more real. The gentleness of God is always with you. You are good and true. God’s love always lives in you.


You only need to open your heart to this love, as I open my heart now to you. You only need to choose to return to that soft tender place within. There you will know that nothing can separate you from the God who has sent you into the world to be the presence of love. In the tenderness you will find truth. In the softness you will know strength.

The flow of love that has brought you here never ends; it never changes; it never gets tired or runs out. It is love that keeps the world going. It is love that makes your heart beat and the blood run in your veins. It is all God’s gift, God’s mercy unfolding in us and all around us. There is nothing more we need to know, nothing more we need to achieve or accomplish. We need only again and again to abandon ourselves to the truth of the love that carries us through life. May you choose, even in the darkest times to know this love that never lets you go.

May you always trust that, deeper than any tragedy, there is the loving Presence. When we turn and remember, we will know that the broken bits of life are restored by the love in which you have been born. The wounds that so often hinder our lives are healed when we surrender to the love that has sent you to live among us.

You are the source of all healing. As you open to this great destiny God has for you, I pray that you may always find hearts that open to you and receive from you the love and light that is God’s presence.

I love you, as I know I have been and will always be loved by you,

Your Mother Mary.

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Gabriel's Announcement

It would not have been my first choice to receive this heavenly visitor. I am not accustomed to mystical visions. I am a practical woman; voices speaking in the night are strange to me. Angels are not part of the normal routine of my daily experience.

Why would a heavenly messenger come to me? I am a poor young woman, not someone any person of importance would bother to visit.

My name is Mary. This angel-visitor came to me the night after Joseph and I became engaged. It had started out as such a happy day, the excitement of knowing my life was committed to this man, our families celebrating together. In a small village, an engagement is always big news. For us it is as if we had become married already. The bond of engagement cannot be broken without great shame and deep pain.

Joseph is a good man, a strong man. I know Joseph will care for me and for our children when we have them. He will be a good provider. Joseph will respect me and together we will build a strong and loving family. I can trust Joseph. When our engagement was announced I felt sure that my future was secure.

But, that very night, the angel came and shattered my calm. He told me, his name was Gabriel. The name means “God is my strength.” I didn’t know it at the time, but would soon learn, that the news this angel brought meant I was going to greatly need God’s strength. Even the strength of my beloved Joseph would not be enough to face the events that would follow the angel’s announcement.

I don’t know what you think an angel looks like. I cannot really draw you a picture. Encountering an angel is more like a feeling deep inside. The angel presence felt to me like a powerful movement and yet, at the same time, perfect stillness and quiet. It was in that stillness the angel spoke.

At first I could not make sense of his words. He said I was greatly blessed and God is with me. He said I did not need to be afraid. I wasn’t really afraid, until he told me I didn’t need to be. Then I began to wonder. What does this strange visitation mean? How is this angel message going to change my life?

Then the angel told me I was going to become mysteriously pregnant even before Joseph and I were married. That is when I knew why he had said I should not be afraid. My heart began to flutter; I felt sick in my stomach. Perhaps at that moment, already, the miracle had begun. But all I knew was that something terrifying and bewildering was beginning to happen.

What would my family think? What would Joseph do? What would the village elders say? Surely, I would be an outcast. No one would believe the strange explanation Gabriel offered. What could it possibly mean to say God’s Spirit was going to come upon me and give me this child? Why did he have to be named Jesus?
I would have preferred to choose my first child’s name myself. But the angel did not seem to be open to negotiation. He simply announced, “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.” It’s not that “Jesus” is such a bad name. Like Gabriel, the name “Jesus” tells us something about God. It tells us that God saves people. God makes people whole. God gives the gift of life and helps us to be the people we were created to be.

As I listened to the angel and felt the hot air of God’s breath on my check, I wondered what it might mean to be saved. What is it that a person is created to be? What does a whole human life look like?

Then Gabriel went on to speak about the son I was to bear. It was the last thing the angel said that caught my attention. He said that my baby would “reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” I don’t know a lot about history; but I do know that all the human kingdoms that have ever been on this earth have all come to an end. We Jews know what it is like to see the kingdoms of men come and go. We are always waiting for some foreign ruler to pass in the hope that one day we might be able to rule our lives without the interference of others. Right now the Romans are in charge of my people and of the land where we live. Before them it was the Greeks and before them the Persians, the Babylonians, Assyrians, and the Egyptians. Since the days before our journey in the wilderness, someone else has always been in charge.

I may be young but I know enough to know that in life things don’t always go the way we may want them to go. Life follows a windy path; life goes up and life goes down. We never know what is coming next and sometimes the things that come are good and wonderful, other times they are hard and painful.

When the angel announced Jesus’ birth it felt like this was going to be one of the hard and painful times. And yet, the angel said that, in the midst of all this, there is a kingdom that will never end. When the angel spoke about this kingdom, I felt something deep inside me begin to stir. I touched a place in myself that I never really knew existed. It was a place that felt stronger and more real than all my fear and all my uncertainty. It felt solid and whole and good and true. And I knew that this is what the angel was talking about. I knew that my baby Jesus was going to grow up into a man who would help people find this solid, strong, deep, never-ending place in their lives.

When I found that place inside myself, it was not so hard any more for me to say yes to the angel. Suddenly, I was able to let it all be the way the angel had said. I knew I could not control my life. I knew that things were going to be difficult sometimes. I knew that I would experience pain and heartbreak with this baby. But I also knew that, whatever happened, I would be ok. I knew that nothing could hurt this kingdom inside me that never ends. My life would go on and I would trust that strong deep place. I would be able to rest in that place the angel had uncovered.


My baby was going to show the world this place of strength and love inside every person. He was going bring us all to that place where we know that “nothing will be impossible with God,” that place where we cannot be hurt and we will always be open, strong and loving. This is the place Jesus came to help us find. This is the gift God has given us in the child I bear.


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