READ: Acts 1:14

4 The disciples all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

REFLECT
This is the last time we hear about Mary in the Bible. From a young virgin whose life got completely de-railed with Gabriel’s news, to the mother of a teenage boy exercising his independence from her to “be in His Father’s house”, to the caterer at a wedding urging the servants to do whatever Jesus told them in the crisis, to one of the few who remained at his side during his death, Mary has grown into quite the woman of faith. Now, after the sword indeed piercing her own heart, as Simeon foretold in Luke 1:35, she has witnessed her son and her Lord back from the dead, victorious over sin and death. Maybe now Gabriel’s words from Luke 1:32-33 have new meaning, He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. After all she has heard Jesus say, after all she has heard him do, here she is still, pondering these things in her heart…constantly in prayer with the other disciples and the other women, praising God. 

I wonder, What might she have been praying? Perhaps she was praising God that He had indeed given Jesus the throne—He alone conquered death. Perhaps she was asking for His help and guidance as they sought to witness to these truths faithfully. Perhaps she was giving God her grief. She had lost her son on Good Friday and gotten him back on Easter Sunday, only to lose him again after forty short days. I’m sure she had mixed emotions. We often do. But she prayed all of them to God, in the company of those who shared her emotions, too.

RESPOND
If your life was summarized in the pages of Scripture, how would you like the final verses to describe you? He honored God by living with integrity and example. She did all she could to life a life of selfless love. May we be able to say the same. I want to go out like that! May we hear our Savior say Well done, good and faithful servant. May we live this day in light of that day…until we see our Lord, Mary’s Son, face to face.