Becoming Mary

Today, I got to be Mary.

And by Mary, I mean Christ's mother.

At church today, a special Christmas program was led, as usual for the Sunday before Christmas. Sacrament meeting ran over BIG TIME, so Sunday School time was reduced to a speck. Not that it wasn't a good lesson, Brother Roberts.

But Young Women's had about the same time, however, I guess....maybe. I'm no good at time estimation.

As we young womens came through the door, we each grabbed a scarf from a bag held by a YW leader. Confused at first, I took the silky orange one on top, and took a seat off to the side of our oddly arranged room.

All of the chairs faced a table on which stood a picture of a woman with an oil lamp, a bigger picture of Mary and Jesus on an easel, and a T.V. The lesson began with Sister Rhoton suggesting that we all don our scarves and become Mary.

We listened to "Breath of Heaven" (sung by the Ellsworth sisters) and watched the Nativity. Sis. Ellsworth then taught us about Mary's life, and how her situation was so odd for the time. She then related the parable of the ten virgins: five were prepared with oil in their lamps, and five were not. When the bridegroom arrived, only the prepared ones were allowed to follow him to the party.

We have to be prepared. We must fill up our spiritual lamp by praying, keeping the commandments, and repenting. This is how we prepare for the bridegroom, Christ, to come.

An Ellsworth sister who recently returned from BYU Jerusalem brought with her little lamps for each of us YW. They are so cute; pinkish clay with a small rope wick inside. And the cool thing is, that they are also usable, and not just decoration.

The lesson ended with a song sung by Sister Jones entitled "Behold Thy Handmaiden." I'm not sure who wrote it, but I'm posting the lyrics below.

I came away from this lesson incredibly spiritually enriched. It probably wasn't as spiritual for you guys just reading what happened, but it was really cool at church.

I liked learning about Mary. Wow, did she go through a lot. I can't even imagine.

The point of everything, I suppose, is to tell you (girls...) to try to put yourself in Mary's shoes before (or on) Christmas Day. Think about her, look up some pictures of her, watch the Nativity, find a version of "Breath of Heaven" to listen to. And carefully read the lyrics below.

Behold Thy Handmaiden

Behold Thy handmaiden, Lord.
Ready now am I to live the word.
To teach Thy word, to praise Thy name on high.

Behold my hands, O Lord,
Consecrated now to serve Thy daughters,
To serve Thy sons, to comfort each with love.

Behold my eyes O Lord,
Windows to my soul to see Thy light,
To love Thy light, to know and shape my role.

Behold my heart O Lord,
Waiting patiently to feel Thy love,
To share Thy love, Thy child will I ever be.
Thy child will I ever be.

To see pictures of the awesome lamp and pictures that I received, go to mine and Lynzi's photography blog.