Engraved Madonna and Child

Engraved Madonna and Child

By Eric Gill

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the Baby, who was lying in the manger. After they had seen the Child, they spread the message they had received about Him. And all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

Luke 2:16-19

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The nativity is, at its heart, a story of relationship — of a Son who comes to save, and a mother whose faith makes room for Him. In the quiet of Bethlehem, Mary holds the Infinite in her arms. St. Augustine marveled at this mystery: “Man’s maker was made man, that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breast; that the Bread might hunger, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired on its journey … that Strength might grow weak; that the Healer might be wounded; that Life might die.” In Mary and Jesus we see both the humility of God and the holiness of a woman who welcomed Him without hesitation.

It is striking that the Savior of the world chose to come to Earth not through power or privilege but through a young mother in poverty. Charles Spurgeon draws courage from this: “If Jesus Christ was born in a manger in a rock, why should He not come and live in our rocky hearts? If He was born in a stable, why should not the stable of our souls be made into a house for Him? If He was born in poverty, may not the poor in spirit expect that He will be their Friend? Will He count it any dishonor to come to the very poorest and humblest of His creatures and tabernacle in the souls of His children? Oh, no! We can gather a lesson of comfort from His humble parentage and we can rejoice that not a queen, or an empress, but that a humble woman became the mother of the Lord of Glory.” Christ did not disdain humble surroundings then, and He does not disdain them now. The Savior entrusted to Mary’s arms is willing to dwell in the simplest, most imperfect human soul.

But Mary’s greatness is not only in receiving Him — it is in the way she holds His story. Twice, Luke tells us that she “kept all these sayings, and pondered them in her heart.” Alexander Maclaren reflects, “We have the same duty to the truth, and it will never disclose its inmost sweetness to us…unless we too treasure it in our hearts, and by patient brooding on it understand its hidden harmonies, and spread our souls out to receive its transforming power. A non-meditative religion is a shallow religion.” Mary thus serves as a model of what a disciple does with revelation: she carries it, protects it, meditates on it, lets it shape her. As John Trapp rightly put it four centuries ago: “her soul was a holy ark; her memory like the pot of manna, preserving holy truths and remarkable occurrences.”

This season invites us to step into Mary’s pattern — to make room, to ponder deeply, and to let the Savior be born in us. The Child she carried is the One who carries us. The One she nourished is the One who nourishes the world. And the humble love with which she welcomed Him becomes the pattern by which He now welcomes us: gently, patiently, joyfully — into a new life born of God.

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