One of the most honoring things God says about us is that we were created in God’s image.  Indelibly stamped on the soul of each person is the image of our creator.  Now, this image has been marred by sin and self-will, but still within each human soul, even if distorted, twisted or buried, are inkling and echoes of the Divine. This is what gives humanity dignity. It’s why all human life is precious. Mary was a huge proponent of the sanctity of LIFE. Theologians have debated for a thousand years over what is exactly the image of God in man. But at the very least, we can say that any act of compassion, bravery, or nobility that we demonstrate points to One greater who inspires and originates all that is good.  For believers in Jesus, who have been made alive and regenerated by God’s Spirit, this is magnified and reaches its true realization.  As Christians, or little-Christs, as the term literally means, each one of us is a unique representation of our Heavenly Father.

Over the course of the last month, I’ve been thinking a lot about Mary and all the God-like traits that she possessed.  She was a unique reflection of the God she served and the Savior she adored. As we conclude our time together, I’d like to share a few of these traits.

First, In Mary, I see a heart of compassion.  I suppose this is so obvious as to not even need to be said, but Mary genuinely cared for people.  All people… if you came into Mary’s world, she would love on you. Mary loved her Marines.  Especially the young women who serve to defend our nation. I had the opportunity, as many of you have, to go to the Coffee House, a weekly gathering of food, fellowship and witness on the ground floor lobby of the enlisted barracks at Quantico. Every week, Jeff & Mary would load up a minivan full of food- chili, meatballs, mac & Cheese, sloppy joes, pork BBQ, beef BBQ, shredded chicken, hotdogs… whatever could fit in a crockpot.  You name it, they served it.  Along with chips, dip, desserts, soda, coffee, snacks. Many of you have contributed generously to the coffee house by dropping food off here at Grace Life or providing money.  But often, Jeff & Mary made it themselves.  I counted 9 crockpots in their supply closet at home.

At the coffee house, Mary was a beauty to behold.  She’d work the room, discretely gravitating towards those who looked lonely or distressed. She’d sit with them. Sometimes just being present or at times gently probing and sharing wise counsel.  It’s a special person who notices the hurting, broken and distressed. And still another to step into that uncomfortable place and serve.  Mary was such a person.

Why is this? Well, Mary had the Spirit of Jesus in her and Jesus was a man of compassion.  The gospels tell us that, “When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”  Jesus saw a world in need, he saw you and me and compassion drove him to action.  In the synagogue at Nazareth, he shared his mission: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” And that is what Jesus did.  Moved by compassion he moved into the world he created with the life transforming words and works.  Mary was a woman of compassion because God is a God of compassion. And right now, right where you are, God sees you, he knows your need.  He sees our faults and failings and loves us more than we can possibly know.  Mary had compassion because Jesus has compassion.  And when Mary loved on others, it was Christ in her, the God of the universe expressing his love towards us.

Mary may have been a woman of compassion, but she was also ferocious When they say big things come in small packages, they were talking about Mary.  When it comes to sheer determination, or force of will, Mary was unstoppable.  If she saw an injustice or set, her mind on something- get on board or get out of the way. Given the choice of facing Jeff, with his proficiency in martial arts and affinity for handguns or an angry Mary McCormack… well, let’s just say, there’s no contest.  If Mary loved you, she would defend you. And you don’t want to cross Mary when she was in momma bear mode.  Maybe it was because of the years of infertility and the way God answered her prayer through adoption or just the way she was wired from the get-go… but when it came to her kids, Mary would lock and load. My son Josh went on a mission trip to Honduras with Jeff & Michael in 2011 when Michael was 11.  Interestingly, with all Jeff’s missions to Brazil, Honduras and Jamaica, we could never get Mary out of the country. I’m not sure why.  Well, anyway, while they were in Honduras, Michael got sick from some bad dairy and couldn’t keep much down for a day or so and had to miss several activities.  I guess, Jeff elected to not tell Mary to keep her from worrying. And this proved to be a good decision because pretty soon he improved and joined the team as they went on their next ministry assignment at a local hospital.  And even though Michael still wasn’t feeling super great, he made a great impact on many of the patients, especially the children. But afterwards, as often happens after you’ve been sick, he was pretty wiped out and had to return to the hostel to rest. Meanwhile, the rest of the team enjoyed some much deserved down-time. And it was during that down-time that Jeff got a terse text from Katie up in the US.  “Call. Mom. Now.”  Jeff quickly called home to discover that Michael had returned to the hostel and helpfully texted Mary a status update from the team.  His text: Got sick, throwing up; went to the hospital; Dad at the mall.”  To this day, Jeff has never told me the contents of the conversation that followed.

Mary had a fierce God, too.  The Bible portrays God, not as a distant Deity or a warm grandfather, but as a defender of the widow and orphan, a champion of the weak and oppressed.  God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. His wrath is fierce but so too is his love.  He pursues, defends, protects and guards his children.  And He is fierce in his pursuit of you!  About 5 years ago, a controversial worship song was released, called Reckless Love.  There was a spirited discussion in many churches about the appropriateness of the song for public worship. I don’t mean to minimize those discussions, but one thing the song got right was the fierce love of God.

There’s no shadow You won’t light up

Mountain You won’t climb up

Coming after me

There’s no wall You won’t kick down

Lie You won’t tear down

Coming after me

 

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God

Oh, it chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the ninety-nine

I couldn’t earn it, and I don’t deserve it, still, You give Yourself away

Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God.

Friends, there was a point and time in which God’s fierce love and grace of God caught up to and overcame Mary.  She repented of her sin, turned to Jesus and laid her life at his feet.  Since that day she was never the same and she devoted her life to battling on the front lines for the souls of men and women.  Have you ever encountered this fierce God? He’s not distant or uncaring, he is present and personal. And he is fiercely fighting for your soul.

But one other trait comes to mind, and that is Humility.  I’ve heard it said that humility isn’t the quality of thinking of yourself less or thinking less of yourself, but in most situations, not thinking about yourself at all.  And by that measure, Mary was indeed humble.  She had little to no thought for herself and her life was almost completely oriented towards others.  This humility brought a comfortableness to Mary.  She could talk to almost anyone and everyone who talked with her knew they had her undivided attention.  It was something about the way she maintained eye contact and leaned forward as she listened.  Mary thought more about others than she thought of herself.  I know that one of the struggles of Jeff & Mary’s marriage was Jeff trying to get Mary to actually think about or indulge herself from time to time.  “It’s okay to go out to eat or go out to eat and order a beverage other than water or let Jeff actually buy her something special.  Mary’s thriftiness was part of that for sure, but also her humility caused her to maintain a low profile with simple needs.

But it’s no surprise here… because Mary’s Savior is humble.  Jesus left the incomparable glory of heaven, laying aside his royal majesty, his royal authority, his throne and glory to take on human flesh.  As the Christmas carol reads, ‘Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see, Hail the incarnate deity, pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. Hark the Herald Angels Sing, Glory to the newborn King. “

But Jesus’ humbling didn’t stop there.  The apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 2 that Jesus “being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross!

Jesus’ humility led him to the cross. Where he voluntarily accepted the pain and punishment of our sin. There was no other way for humanity to be reconciled to God.  Mary, through simple faith, believed this, received this.  She became a child of God and Jesus became Lord of her life.

Years ago, Mary met a compassionate, fierce, humble God and that encounter transformed her life.  I don’t know about you, but I could follow a God who loves the world deeply and has unbounded compassion for my faults and failings.  I could come to love a God who fiercely fights injustice, defends the weak and pursues the lost and broken.  And I could submit my life to a humble God who was willing to do whatever it takes to reconcile his lost and broken creation to himself.  Jesus was willing to die for me, so he could offer us true life in the present and eternal life when we die.

People will fail us, the world abuse us, the church may hurt us, but the real question is: What have we done with Jesus?  Don’t hold at arm’s length or reject our compassionate, fierce, humble God.  He’s calling to you today.