The Other Mary

The Other Mary

By Gale Ashcroft

It was December 23, and Mary was miserable.  It just didn’t feel like Christmas.  She’d tried and tried to get in the spirit, but everything was wrong this year!

For one thing, it was too hot!  Alright, it was Arizona, and she really didn’t expect it to snow, (although she prayed for it every winter), but at least it could be cold and rainy, or just cold.  Instead, every day the sun shown brightly and some days it was almost 75 degrees!  It was shorts weather, if her mother would let her wear them.  How could she feel the spirit of Christmas when she was sweating?

Then, nothing smelled right.  It was too hot to have a fire.  She wanted to turn on the air-conditioning but mom wouldn’t let her.  Every night she opened the windows, but the house still was not cold enough to light the fire.  Without it, it just didn’t smell like Christmas.

On top of that, they didn’t have a real tree!  Last year after Christmas her mom and dad bought a fake tree on sale.  It was so ugly!  It had lots of green bushy sticks that you stuck into the trunk, and it looked more like a big green gum drop than a Christmas tree.  Worst of all, it didn’t smell!  Of course there had been no reason to go to the mountains to cut a tree down like they usually did, and they hadn’t even gone down-town to the Christmas Tree lot to smell the fir trees.

Mary had tried going into the front room at night, turning on the lights of the tree, and listening to Christmas music.  She even made hot chocolate and put a little candy cane in it to make it taste Christmassy, but it didn’t help.  Without the smell of a fir tree and a fire in the fireplace, it just didn’t feel like Christmas.

To make matters worse, Mary wasn’t excited about her presents.  Last year she had done a really dumb thing and snooped until she found all of her gifts.  It was fun and exciting to look for them, but on Christmas Eve she was miserable!  There wasn’t anything to be excited about.  On Christmas morning her mom forgot one of her presents.  Mary knew what it was and where it was hidden, but she couldn’t tell because then mom would know she had snooped.  All day she worried about it and kept asking her mother if she had forgotten any presents.  Finally mom remembered, but by then the whole day was ruined.

This year Mary had been determined not to snoop, but she still knew what all her gifts were going to be.  Her mother had a habit of buying Christmas presents all year long at sales.  Mom was always taking Mary down to the store to try stuff on, and asking what colors she liked of this or that.  Now Mary was sure she knew exactly what she was getting.

The thing she was really unhappy about was the go-go boots.  Last year she had begged for a pair of boots like the guys on Laugh-In wore.  Everyone at school had them, and they were so cool!  Mom had already bought all her presents, though.  This summer go-go boots had gone on sale.  Mom had pumped her to find out what color she liked and what size she wore.  But when school started in September, nobody wore go-go boots anymore.  They had gone out of style.  So here she was, getting a pair of boots for Christmas that she didn’t want and would never wear.  It was no wonder she didn’t feel the Christmas spirit!

Last week her school had put on the play A Charlie Brown Christmas Story.    Charlie Brown reminded Mary of herself.  He wasn’t in the Christmas Spirit, either.  In the middle of the play Charlie Brown had shouted out, “Doesn’t anyone know the real meaning of Christmas?”  Mary had known just how he felt.  Linus had answered by quoting the Christmas story from the Bible.  You know the part “….and there were in the same country shepherds abiding in their fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night….”  It was a great story, but as far as Mary was concerned, it didn’t answer the question.  The Bible story was fine, but it didn’t give you that tingly all over feeling that Christmas was supposed to bring.

Mary had really hoped that on Sunday there would be a special Christmas program to help her get in the mood.  This year, instead of telling the good old Christmas stories that made you almost cry and feel so good, though, her teacher had shown a slide show about Jesus’ life.  It was ok, but it didn’t help her feel the Christmas spirit.

Finally, this morning, just two days before Christmas, Mary had decided she would have to do something herself to get in the mood.  She wasn’t going to let Christmas come and go without feeling something!  She had an idea of how to make herself excited.  She would buy herself a present, something that she’d always wanted!  She still had $15 left from baby-sitting.  She’d already bought mom and dad and her little brothers and sisters their presents. She needed to get something for her big brother Steve and his wife Emmy and their baby, but she figured she could find something cheap for them and still have enough money left to get herself something really special that would make her excited for Christmas to come.  She was torn between two ideas.  One was the new Christmas album from the Carpenters.  It had a song about the real meaning of Christmas.  “It’s not the things you do, on Christmas day, but the little things you do all year through.”  It was so pretty, and she knew it would make her feel good to play it on Christmas.

Mary also wanted a bottle of White Shoulders perfume.  There was this girl at school, Jenny something-or-other.  She was gorgeous, and she had long, strawberry blond hair. All the guys were crazy for her.  You could tell when she walked by because you could smell her White Shoulders Perfume.  Mary knew that if she could just put on White Shoulders on Christmas day she would feel wonderful!

That afternoon Mary went with her mom to the T.G.&Y. store.  All the Christmas stuff was on sale.  Mary found the White Shoulders and it was only $7.00!  Then she found the Christmas records on sale for half price!  The Carpenter’s Christmas album was only $5.00.  She could buy them both and still have $2 left to get something for Steve and Emmy.  Of course, there wasn’t much you could buy for $2, but she knew they both liked candy canes and she found some gigantic ones for only .89 cents.  She could get them, and the record and the perfume!

As soon as she got home she got the wrapping paper and wrapped up her gifts.  She didn’t bother putting a name tag on either of them, since she was the one who always handed out the presents anyway.  She’d know who they went to.  She put a pretty red bow on each candy cane, sticking a piece of holly through the knots to make them look especially pretty.  She was feeling a little guilty for giving her brother and sister-in-law such cheap presents.

Just as she was finishing the phone rang.  It was Steve.  He needed a baby-sitter that night.  Mary really didn’t want to go.  Miracle on 34 Street was going to be on TV and it was one of her favorite Christmas movies, but she said yes because she felt like she owed Steve and Emmy a better Christmas gift.

When Steve picked her up she brought the candy canes with her.  On the way to their apartment, Steve told Mary about where he and Emmy were going.  Since Steve was a full time college student working a part time job, they didn’t have much money.  After buying small gifts for their parents and something little for each of their brothers and sisters, there just hadn’t been any money left for themselves.  That morning someone had called to tell them they had two extra tickets to see the Nutcracker.  Steve looked at it as an answer to prayer.  Emmy had always wanted to go to a ballet, so this would be their Christmas present.  Steve was so thankful to Mary for agreeing to baby-sit for them.

Emmy showed Mary where all the stuff for the baby was and told her that he’d probably fall asleep around 8:00 if she rocked him.  After they left Mary played with little Davie and looked around the apartment.  In the corner were Steve’s stereo and the records he had collected since he was a teenager.  She really envied those records.  She saw that he didn’t have the Carpenter’s new Christmas album, though, and she smiled remembering her present under the tree at home.

The apartment was tiny, but Emmy had worked hard to make it cute and homey.  On the table was a Christmas tree, only it wasn’t really a tree.  They hadn’t had enough money to buy one and they didn’t have time to go to the mountains to cut one down, so Emmy had gone to the Christmas Tree lot and gathered up some of the cast off branches.  She had tied them together to make a little tree, and put it in a can of dirt.  They had decorated the tree with strings of popcorn, gingerbread cookies, and ribbons left from their wedding.  It looked beautiful, and it smelled so good!  Under it were the two presents for their parents and some plastic candy canes filled with M&M’s for each of their brothers and sisters.  Mary thought it was awfully nice of them to buy gifts for family before they even got something for little Davie.

When she had the baby ready for bed, she sat down in Emmy’s old rocking chair to put him to sleep.  It was kind of chilly.  The apartment didn’t have central heating, only a couple of old electric heaters.  Mary got a blanket from the bedroom and wrapped it around herself and little Davie.  Then she sat down and rocked him.  She was so happy!  At last she was really feeling the spirit of Christmas!  It was chilly enough for a blanket, the fir branches on the table smelled wonderful, and she was holding the sweetest little baby in all the world.  She was in heaven!

As she rocked, she began to sing all of her favorite Christmas songs; Chesnutts Roasting on an Open Fire, Sleight Bells Ring, are you Listening?, It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas.  The more she sang the happier she got.  At last, she ran out of songs and the baby was asleep.  She didn’t want this special moment to end, so she just sat there, rocking and watching him sleep.  She wondered if there had ever been a cuter baby in all the world.  His tiny lashes rested softly against his chubby little cheeks, and wisps of curly golden hair snuggled into the blanket.  Mary wondered if maybe the Christ Child had looked like this.  She remembered the slides she had seen in Sunday School.  Her teacher had said that the Mother Mary hadn’t been much older than she was when Jesus was born.  Had she held him and sung lullabies to him the way Mary was doing now?  She thought about the old Christmas hymns, the ones they sang in church that she’d always thought were boring.  Actually, they sounded kind of like lullabies.  She began to sing Away in a Manger, then O Little Town of Bethlehem, and Silent Night.  A warm, peaceful feeling filled her heart as she sang and thought about that other Mary, rocking her new little baby in her arms.

Gradually Mary drifted off to sleep and began to dream.  She dreamt that she saw the Mother Mary, holding the sleeping Christ Child.  She saw the animals in their stalls, quietly listening as Mary sang lullabies to her little baby.  Then she saw the shepherds come softly to the manger, gazing lovingly on the sweet infant, lying in the hay.  The wise men came and lay their gifts at the baby’s feet, humbly kneeling to worship the little child.

As Mary dreamed she saw Jesus grow; playing with other children, talking to wise men in the Temple, and becoming a grown man; teaching, healing, and loving the people.  It grew very dark and Mary dreamt that she saw Jesus in a grove of olive trees.  He was kneeling, praying to Heavenly Father.  As Mary watched He began to cry, and she wanted to run to Him and comfort Him.  Even as she thought this, though, she saw His tears turn into agony as He suffered what seemed to be great pain.  In her heart, Mary cried out, wondering what was wrong.  Then she heard a voice inside her heart telling her that Jesus was feeling all the sorrow and pain that she had ever felt or would feel in all her life, and that he was suffering for the sins and pains and anguish that every human soul on the earth would feel.  She watched in horror as the Savior bent in agony and great drops of sweat formed on His brow.  As the pain worsened the drops of sweat changed into blood as He suffered.  The scene changed, and Mary saw a hill with three enormous beams on it.  She watched as soldiers drove huge nails into the palms, and then the wrists of Jesus, then lifted him onto the cross.  She saw the other Mary, His mother, kneeling a little way off, sobbing.  She cried, too, as if her heart would break.  Then Mary looked up into the face of her Savior, and she heard Him whisper, “Father.  It is Done.” And she watched him die.

It seemed to Mary that her heart must surely break, but the picture changed once more and she found herself in a garden, early in the morning.  There were springtime flowers and new grass, and it smelled lovely.  The sun wasn’t up yet.  The sky was soft blue.  Puffy little white clouds on the eastern horizon were turning white, tinged with peach and pink.  Mary looked around and saw a woman kneeling on the ground a little way off.  It was a different Mary, Mary Magdelene.  Mary was still crying herself, and she started to go to this woman for comfort, but stopped when she saw a man approaching.  He spoke to Mary Magdelene, and then called her by name.  She looked up at Him and burst into tears, because it was Jesus, the Savior.  He wasn’t dead any more.  He was alive!  Then Jesus turned to Mary, smiling.  Holding out His arms, He called, “Mary, Mary.”

She woke up with a start.  Steve was gently shaking her shoulder, whispering, “Mary, Mary.”  She looked up at him, unseeing, so caught up in her dream that she couldn’t wake up.  Her heart felt as if it was bursting with joy and happiness.  Even as she came out of her dream the feeling stayed with her.  Emmy took the sleeping baby from her arms and Steve reached for his wallet to pay Mary, but she jumped up and stopped him.

“No, wait a minute, Steve.”  Mary ran to get the candy cane presents she had brought and handed them to him.

“Merry Christmas, Steve.  These and a night of free baby-sitting are my presents to you and Emmy.”

Steve started to protest, but Mary told him to use the money to get little Davie a gift instead.  Steve hugged her tight.

All the way home and as she got ready for bed Mary kept the special feeling from her dream in her heart.  As she lay in bed she pondered on it.  Never had she felt so joyous, so full of love, so really, really happy.  At last she had found the real Christmas spirit, and she didn’t want to loose it, not ever!

The next day was Christmas Eve.  She helped her mother clean and bake and get ready for Christmas with a song in her heart.  In the afternoon, she got down the Christmas wrapping paper and found two name tags.  She wrote on them and taped them to her presents.

That night when the family gathered around the Christmas tree to hear the Christmas story from the Bible, Mary had tears in her eyes.  As Dad read, “And Mary brought forth her first born son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger,” Mary saw again the little baby snuggled tightly in his mother’s arms.  She remembered the way the shepherds had gazed in awe at the new child.  She could still see the wise men kneeling in worship before Him.  Now she knew the answer to Charlie Brown’s question.  The real meaning of Christmas was that this was the day to remember when Jesus was born.

Christmas morning Mary enjoyed opening every one of her gifts, even her white go-go boots.  She put them on and her little sisters ooed and awed, and she imagined how much fun she’d have letting them play dress up with her ‘cool’ boots.

Mary was just finishing handing out gifts when Steve and Emmy rang the door bell.  They gave their gift to Mary’s parents, and the plastic candy canes to each of the kids.  Then Mary reached under the tree and pulled out the last two presents.

“This one says it’s to Steve, from Emmy,” she read as she handed Steve a big, flat package.  Steve looked at Emmy in surprise, whispering, “But we agreed not to give each other gifts.”

“Oh, just open it,” Mary ordered, and everyone else chimed in.  Steve ripped off the paper and looked in amazement at the Carpenter’s Christmas Album, then at Emmy’s surprised face.

“But how?” he started to ask, but Mary interrupted him by handing the other package to Emmy.

“This one says, from Steve to Emmy.”  In surprise, Emmy took it and opened it.

“White Shoulders Perfume?  Steve, how did you do it?” she gasped as she threw her arms around his neck.

The laughing and exclaiming were interrupted by their mother, who suddenly exclaimed.  “Oh, no!  I did it again!  Mary, take the baby, I just remembered I have one more present I forgot to put out!”

She hurried from the room, but was back in a second with a paper sack in her hand  Handing it to Mary she apologized.  “I haven’t even wrapped it yet, but I found this a couple of months ago and I thought because of your name you would especially like it.”

Mary gave the baby back to her mom and took the sack.  She had no idea what was in it.  Reaching inside she found a small picture in a frame.  It was the picture of a girl, not much older than she, holding a beautiful little baby in her arms.  The Mother Mary with the Christ Child.  It was the best present she had ever received!