Mary, Did You Know?

 

I do realize that Christmas season is over. However, the birth of Jesus leads to the life of Jesus, then death and resurrection and the never-ending story of the King. So I’m circling back to Bethlehem, but with the mindset that as we begin our New Year, we head in the direction of Easter where we will honor the worst and best days of history.        

I read this poem around Christmas this year in a collection of other poetry and pieces pulled from L. M. Montgomery’s works. Think Anne of Green Gables when Matthew gives her a dress with puffed sleeves. *cue all the tears* This poem is reminiscent of the “Mary Did You Know” song we all hear one-thousand times around the holidays. It’s unique in the juxtaposition of grief and joy Mary would have felt as a mother. 

Mary did know that her baby was the Great I Am. That He was the promised Messiah, would fulfill prophecies, and save His people from their sins. She likely didn’t know all of the details of this or the specific picture that would play out. I love how this poem speaks of His mercy and healing and hope, while also describing His pain and agony and fatigue. Fully God, fully man. I hope this poem reminds us of the great things Jesus has done for us as it presents itself in a beautifully worded imagining of His mother, Mary.

 

If Mary Had Known
           L.M. Montgomery

If Mary had known
When she held her Babe’s hands in her own
Little hands that were tender and white as a rose,
All dented with dimples from finger to wrist,
Such as mothers have kissed
That one day they must feel the fierce blows
Of a hatred insane,
Must redden with holiest stain,
And grasp as their guerdon the boon of the bitterest pain,
Oh, I think that her sweet, brooding face
Must have blanched with its anguish of knowledge above her embrace.

 

But if Mary had known,
As she held her Babe’s hands in her own,
What a treasure of gifts to the world they would bring;
With healing and hope to the hearts that must ache,
And without him must break;
Had she known they would pluck forth death’s sting
And set open the door
Of the close, jealous grave evermore,
Making free who were captives in sorrow and darkness before,
Oh, I think that a gracious sunrise
Of rapture had broken across the despair of her eyes!

 

If Mary had known
As she sat with her baby alone,
And guided so gently his bare little feet
To take their first steps from the throne of her knee,
How weary must be
The path that for them should be meet;
And how it must lead
To the cross of humanity’s need,
Giving hissing and shame, giving blame and reproach for its meed,
Oh I think that her tears would have dewed
Those dear feet that must walk such a hard, starless way to the Rood!

 

But if Mary had known,
As she sat with her Baby alone,
On what errands of mercy and peace they would go,
How those footsteps would ring through the years of all time
With an echo sublime,
Making holy the land of their woe,
That the pathway they trod
Would guide the world back to its God,
And lead ever upward away from the grasp of the clod,
She had surely forgot to be sad
And only remembered to be most immortally glad!

 

If Mary had known
As she held him so closely, her own,
Cradling his shining, fair head on her breast,
Sunned over with ringlets as bright as the morn,
That a garland of thorn
On that tender brow would be pressed
Till the red drops would fall
Into the eyes that looked out upon all,
Abrim with a pity divine over clamor and brawl,
Oh, I think that her lullaby song
Would have died on her lips into wailing impassioned and long!

 

But if Mary had known,
As she held him so closely, her own,
That over the darkness and pain he would be
The Conqueror hailed in all oncoming days,
The world’s hope and praise,
And the garland of thorn,
The symbol of mocking and scorn
Would be a victorious diadem royally worn,
Oh, I think that ineffable joy
Must have flooded her soul as she bent o’er her wonderful Boy!

 

--Sandy Gromacki