Mary- Stretched to Capacity

Luke 2: 4-5 (NIV)

"And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of Bethlehem; (b/c he was of the house & linage of David:) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child."

Tonight as I read this devotion, in my "Mommy-to-Be" journal, it struck a cord. Titled "Stretched to Capacity" it talked about Mary being "great with child" and having to travel all that way on the back of a donkey! Can you imagine all the discomforts she must have been feeling? She was, after all, in her final days of pregnancy. I wonder what was going through her mind along the way? She had no comforts of home, or even a familiar place to rest. She had no assurance of a place to go to and deliver her child (our Savior) into the world.

It struck a cord with me b/c I too am "great with child".  I am thankful for this reminder of Mary. Here I am, around the same time she would have been, in the comforts of my own home. There she was, forced to travel on a donkey for several miles and days with no place to call her own! I'm sure that had to be a trying time for her. My discomforts seem so small compared to what she surely must have been feeling.  I have an air-conditioned car to take me to a safe place to deliver my child. I have the assurance of a place to stay, a midwife to help me deliver, & the assurance of a decent bed & medical care. Mary had none of this! While I still have had similar discomforts as most pregnant women do, & have been stretched to capacity (in more ways than one), I still have it better off than Mary did. It was (and is) a good reminder for me to think about Mary's final weeks compared to my own.

God will take care of me, just as He did Mary. In the meantime, He also wants me to cast all my cares upon Him and trust Him in these final days of stretching. (Psalm 55:22) May I allow this stretching time to help me grow into the person He's calling me to be.