Handmade Handmaid

A & J with the Advent wreath they decorated together.

A few weeks ago in the Atrium, I pulled out the story of the Annunciation for my 1^st, 2^nd & 3^rd graders to meditate on.  They’ve heard it, some of them since they were 3, and so the challenge was to help them go back and find something new, something they had never thought of before in the passage.  I lit the candle and read aloud, from Gabriel coming to Mary and telling her to not be afraid, to announcing the news that she was soon to become pregnant with a son she was to call Jesus, to Mary’s questioning of the angel and then saying, “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord.” 

After the reading I asked questions to help us think about what we had heard: “Why do you think the angel said, ‘Do not be afraid?””  “Who is this baby who is going to be born?”  When we got to the end I thought of something I’d never asked them before:  “Here Mary says, ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord.’  What do you think that might mean?”  The kids all gave me blank looks and then Ani, who was doing an art craft a table away said, “maybe it means that God created her . . . you know handmade.” 

At first the play on words struck me as funny.  We’d been doing a lot of “handmade“ stuff at home lately—ever since Jessica found a book at the library in October which detailed how to make perfume, bath salts, and soap.  The kitchen was transformed in no time into a laboratory of scents and oils and Epsom salts being mixed together.  And the girls loved it.  Now, they’re busily planning what they can make for Christmas presents.  Handmade gifts bespeak to them effort and patience, and a real love for what you have made and who you are giving it to. Handmade means that whatever you make might not turn out picture perfect, but it will be unique and that’s even better. 

So maybe that’s what Mary was proclaiming:  Behold, I am made by God, a unique creation.  And this God who knows me and loves me, has a specific task she would like me to do. And I accept it.  Behold I am the handmade handmaid of the Lord. 

We believe in a God who knit us together in our mothers’ wombs and has counted the hairs on our heads.  We may be imperfect creations but transformed by the love of our Creator we can revel in our uniqueness and dare to say, “May it be done to me according to your will.”  I guess you’re never too old to hear something new in the same simple words.