Mary, did you know?

While thoughts of Christmas and family togetherness dance through many people's heads, my head is spinning with details of visas, paperwork, and packing.  The final crunch is really here.  The last three months have flown by so quickly!  The last few months of shifting and surrender are now coming into completion.  In one sense, the "happily terrified" feeling is being replaced by a sense of just digging in and wading through those jobs that just have to be done.  Christmas is coming, but even the joyful anticipation is outweighed by a deeper anticipation of Rwanda.

Strangely enough, I no longer find myself overwhelmed.  It's been a matter of taking things one step at a time, processing and dealing with each item (paperwork, visas, business or more) as it comes up and trusting God that we are not missing a crucial detail.  It's a peace and trust that I have to deliberately choose each day, each hour, each minute--and especially at night, when my mind is trying to plan for the next day.  

Despite the days ticking down and the endless list of tasks, I have to stop and take time to reflect and appreciate the season we are in.  

I can't help but reflect on that first Christmas.  Did Mary and Joseph anticipate how their lives would change?  When they left for the census, did they have any idea that they wouldn't return for several years?  True, they didn't have visas and flights to worry about, but, they were entrusted with caring for the Messiah--now that's intimidating!  God worked out every detail for them, right down to the place where Jesus was to be born.  Each detail drawing on what was prophesied so many years prior.  Did they have any idea?

I've been trying to put myself in Mary's shoes, what went through her head as she kissed her mother goodbye?  Was she anticipating her mama there at her baby's birth?  Did she know in her heart she wouldn't see her family for a long time and share with them the joy of God's greatest gift?  Security, safety, a home, a "nest", were all sacrificed as Mary and Joseph set out on their historic journey.  In the midst of the chaos that a census entails, they didn't falter or hesitate to carry out the course set before them.  It was a stepping out that eternity was waiting for.  Did they know?  

No one can comprehend the difference a step can make.  One step, a surrendered heart, a simple "yes".