I love Christmas carols and songs. I turn to radio stations that play them as soon as Thanksgiving is past. I think I could listen to them all year long and never grow tired. I love the old carols and I love the new songs. I heard a new one (at least new to me) the other day and fell in love with it. Faith Hill was singing, “A Baby Changes Everything.”* (There’s a YouTube link at the end if you’d like to listen.)
The lyrics begin, “Teenage girl, much too young. Unprepared for what’s to come. A baby changes everything.”
As I listened I, of course, began to think about Mary – not the Mary that has been adored and worshipped, but the young girl that God chose to be the mother of His Only Son. She wasn’t much more than a child herself, but in her obedience, she would do as God asked. And the world was never the same for it.
For Mary, that baby changed everything. She rushed off to her older cousin Elizabeth, now miraculously pregnant in her old age with John the Baptist. Elizabeth confirmed Mary’s obedience. Still, I am sure it would not be long before the town was alive with gossip. Soon would come the trip to Bethlehem and the birth. There would be shepherds there before the night was done to once again confirm Mary’s obedience.
Later the Magi from the east would come and that would necessitate a trip to Egypt to escape the wrath of Herod. Eventually, there would be a return home to Nazareth and peaceful, quiet years—until the Son of God, her son, was revealed, rejected, and crucified. Yes, for Mary, that baby changed everything.
And with His resurrection, He once again changed everything, bringing life this time to Mary, and to all who would come to believe in Him. As the song reminds us, for us, too, that baby changes everything. Thank you, Mary, for your obedience
*Composers: Craig Wiseman, Tim Nichols
