Mary: From Ordinary to Extraordinary

By Alexandra Kuykendall

We know her simply as Mary. Mother of Jesus.

She was an unlikely world changer. A girl by our standards, hardly influential in her culture’s power

paradigm.


Then heaven cracked open and the divine intervened. This miracle that would not only change her life, it

would change the world until the end of time.

 
It certainly wasn’t a calling she’d asked for, at least as far as we know. I’m guessing, if and when she

innocently prayed “Lord use me” and maybe even, “in any way you choose” she couldn’t have dreamed

how that would manifest itself. How HE would manifest HIMSELF in her.

 
How her body would be used to co-knit together the muscle fiber and bone marrow of the Savior.

 
How her blood would spill all over the barn floor as his would years later on the cross.

 
How in the years that followed she would cook for, wash clothes for, worry after her boy, like all

mothers do. She would go on, doing the ordinary, everyday tasks that women today carry on doing.

She fetched water, prayed, tickled her kids. She went to market, greeted neighbors, and loved her

devoted husband. By the external indicators, most would have said an everyday woman. Yet in the

midst of her ordinary life, there was a simply extraordinary reality … she was serving God in unnoticed

ways.

 
I don’t understand why God chose to enter the world in flesh and blood in this simple way, through one

woman. When he could have come in a way that was noticed by all. And as is true with so much of my

faith, what I don’t understand at the same time makes perfect sense.

 
Why wouldn’t God want us women to have a special spot in the process? To bring a holy calling on what

others see as the ordinary? Mary’s most sacred spot in humanity’s history is due to her special closeness

to Jesus. Her relationship with the one who saved her.

 
Can’t we all claim that? That which moves us from ordinary to extraordinary has nothing to do with our

to-do lists or our titles and has everything to do with our relationship with the one who saved us. Carry

on friends serving God in unnoticed ways. It’s through the humblest of ways that we change the world.

 
Alexandra Kuykendall is the author of The Artist’s Daughter: A Memoir. She is a speaker, writer and editor for MOPS International. But don’t be fooled by titles, most of her days are spent washing dishes, driving to and from different schools and trying to find a better solution to the laundry dilemma. You can connect with her at AlexandraKuykendall.com.