From Nazareth to the Manger: Bread and Promises

December 17- Bread and Promises

Anne’s hands are knuckle-deep kneading dough. The unleavened bread she is preparing will last Mary and Joseph the first few days of their trip. Although she does not understand why her daughter has chosen to go with Joseph on this journey, she does sense there is some greater purpose at work.

When Mary returned from visiting Elizabeth, Anne was heartbroken. Open mouthed in disbelief, Anne listened as her daughter told her a tale about an angel and God and being “the favored one”. Ha! If her daughter was Jehovah’s favored one, He sure had a funny way of showing it. It took months for Anne to even entertain the possibility that Mary might believe she was telling the truth. When Anne thinks back on the afternoons she and Mary spent mending or washing clothes, making cheese, sweeping or fetching water, she regrets the constant questioning she put her daughter through.

“Are you sure it wasn’t a soldier?”

“If it WAS Joseph, just be honest and we can see what can be done about the rest of the wedding.”

“Certainly it was another man from the village. Just name him and we can get on with fixing this mess.”

At first Mary was adamant and tearful. Over time she became silent and resolute. Eventually, Anne quit asking questions. She took to studying her daughter’s face, her movements, her countenance.

There was a peace in Mary unlike Anne had never seen. At night Mary would sleep with her hands across her stomach in a protective manner. During the day she sang to herself in soft, joyous tones. There was excitement playing in the corners of her eyes. She bore the silence and disdain of the town like a crown on her head. If it was possible, Mary even stood taller now. Anne kept these things in her heart and pondered them in the way mothers do.

As Anne rolls out dough into flat pieces of bread, she works on exhaling her fears and inhaling the silent promises she knows for certain:

“Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a still, small voice” 1 Kings 19:11-12