Mary

I Thought an awfully lot about Mary today.  The scriptures talk about her pondering in her heart (I think in more than one place).  I wonder if her family was understanding of what happened to  her.  I wonder if they believed her.  It would stand to reason that the  most virtuous woman in history would have patient, loving parents, but why did she go away?  Why were she and Joseph traveling to Bethlehem alone?  Didn't their parents need to be taxed?  Was there a dowry that her parents forfeited because of the circumstances in which she and Joseph married?  Maybe she  pondered things is her heart because she had nobody to really confide in.  She certainly couldn't go to anyone and ask them what they did when this happened to them.  Elizabeth was excited with her and believed her, but how could she not?  The same angel visited her with unbelievable news too.  When Mary and Joseph fled into Egypt, did they go all alone with the baby Jesus?

I don't know exactly what triggered my thinking, but I was struck with the magnitude of the job Mary had and the weird position Joseph was in.  Did he feel like Jesus' dad?  Would he have to carry the visitation of that angel in his pocket everyday in order to not go completely nuts?

I try to imagine what it must have been like, even for John, growing up to  hear about how he was prophesied by an angel and how his dad went dumb.  What a bedtime story.  Not to mention that they had to live out in the wilderness to  keep him from being killed.  And the explanations to Jesus all the more extraordinary.

I also spent time wondering today how everyone didn't know how special John and Jesus were just from their age.  They were the only two in the whole region that age.  Everyone else was killed.  Did the people not get that or did that actually add to the resentment toward them?  What would it be like to be the only two people alive your age in a whole country or nation?

Wouldn't it be great to have an account written by Mary?  Everything about it would be different than the way it is in the New Testament.  We would know how people felt around the Savior, not just what they did.   She definitely had a lot to ponder. and ponder. and ponder.  I hope she got  understanding and  answers to her questions.