I'm grateful today for an article written by Timothy George, a scholar and editor, for Christianity Today. I was already going in this direction when this article did much of the work for me.

Mary should be honored, truly revered for her role in God's redemptive drama. Still, in much of the Christian world, Mary's role in God's marvelous work has been distorted and hyper extended and contorted until this dear, blessed Mother of Jesus is hardly recognizable for what she actually is. A whole set of doctrines began to spring up centuries ago from sources other than the Bible. The Roman Catholic arm of Christianity and other branches have fully authorized some of these misconceptions and allowed others to be perpetuated without full endorsement. These have created confusion, not only about Mary, but about her son, Jesus.

Let me give you some examples:

Perpetual virginity: for some reason, some refuse to believe that Jesus had siblings born of Joseph and Mary, insisting that Mary never knew relations with a man. Any astute scholar would struggle with this in light of direct biblical references to Jesus' siblings and the assumption that they were fully human and not divine and that Joseph was their dad.

Immaculate conception: the idea that Mary herself was conceived by the Holy Spirit and not by natural means, which is a completely foreign idea to anyone steeped in the biblical story.

Bodily assumption: teaches that Mary never died an earthly death by actually ascended into heaven like Elijah in the Old Testament. If someday we were to find that this actually happened, I'd be thrilled for her, but there's no biblical evidence for this.

Mediatrix of all graces: while this isn't fully endorsed by the Catholic Church, many have believed that Mary actually mediates between people and Jesus, rather than Jesus between God and humanity. Perhaps this idea draws energy from the story at Cana in John 2, where Mary prompts Jesus to do something about the wine shortage at the wedding feast. Some people pray to Mary to persuade Jesus to persuade the Father to act on their prayers, as if Jesus as a mediator is not enough. Perhaps a female ear in God's head seems for sympathetic to our prayers?

Co-redemptrix with Christ: some have even taught that Mary shares in securing our redemption.

This is far out, but some even hold relics from the past; vials of Mary's milk (supposedly) that have some supernatural affect (born out of centuries of relic worship where enough pieces of the cross of Christ were sold and secured.

As a scholar wrote in the 1500's, "What does Christ do if Mary does all of this?...The fact of the matter is that in popular estimation the blessed virgin has replaced Christ."

Over time, those committed to a Christian system that draws from the Bible began to protest these teachings and other non-biblical doctrines and practices. These protesters became the Protestants, who ushered in the Great Reformation and birthed a number of Christian movements that tried to remain more true to scripture as a guide to faith and practice. Enormous good followed these reformers.

Sadly though, because Mary was tied into many of the false doctrines that Protestants were protesting, nothing good could be said about Mary without some kind of disclaimer that distanced the comment from Mariology (or Mary worship). So for centuries, in Protestant and evangelical circles, Mary hasn't gotten her due, all because many are afraid of sounding Catholic. As the article in Christianity Today says, "If Roman Catholics have deified Mary…evangelicals have subjected here to cold neglect." She has too often been reduced to a bit player in the children's Christmas pageant.

So who is Mary really?

The angel calls here the "favored one," chosen by God for an enormously important role in human history.

Elizabeth calls her "blessed among women."

And that's an understatement. Consider that a woman, ordinary in every way except for her dramatic calling in life, would be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, until a living God-Man is conceived in her womb. The virgin birth as a supernatural reality is very important to the Christian understanding of the identity of Christ. While the great historic apostasies and heresies paint Jesus as either only human or as only divine, the Christian message is that Jesus is both fully human and fully divine. He is fully human so that He can bear our flesh and understand our predicament and (as Hebrews 2:15 says) "free those who all their lives have been enslaved by their fear of death." He had to walk into mortality and walk right into death, breaking its hold and conquering our fears. At the same time, Jesus is fully divine - the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15). As fully divine, Jesus shows us God's basic character, personality, and posture toward us.

So what does this make Mary? The God-bearer (theotokos); whose womb ever writer T.S. Elliot called "The place of impossible union," where heaven and earth, past and present collide and integrate and find resolution in both senses of the word resolution - unity and clarity.

What does Mary say about herself? "I am the Lord's servant, May it be to me as you have said." She's simply the Lord's servant, humbly accepting her honored status and bravely accepting the cataclysmic effects of this drama on her heretofore ordinary life.

Who else is Mary? Yes, she prompted Jesus to start doing what He came to do. It appears that they stayed somewhat close to each other during his short public ministry, though our most compelling picture of Mary as a devotee of Christ is that image of a mother weeping at the feet of her crucified son. There, we are told that only John remained with Christ among the Twelve and that Mary, mother of Jesus, also stayed with him to the end. She was a loyal mother, and, some would say, one of the earliest and most loyal disciples.

Then, we must suppose, she lived on to be the primary Christmas storyteller. Mary had pondered those things in her heart. Mary must have told the story; to Jesus, to John, even to Luke?

One more thing about Mary:

I don't mean to diminish Mary's role when I say that she really becomes a prototype for all of us. We all become God-bearers (theotokos). As Jesus left us The Holy Spirit, who once was with us but now is within us, we Christians literally bear the Spirit of Christ wherever we go. I Corinthians 3:16 says, "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you?" Ephesians 5 says the same thing; be filled with the Spirit. And what are the outpourings of someone filled with the Spirit? We speak to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Making music in our hearts and giving Thanks to God for everything - sort of like Mary and her hymn. Our souls glorify God and our spirits rejoice in God our savior. We become mindful of our humble state as servants and pray that all generations can know this blessing.

Our journey as God-bearers is not always easy. Jesus said "Enter by the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the road is easy that leads to destruction, and many are those who find it. But the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and few are those who find it."