Mary's Story: A Birth Story (Part 2)

Welcome to Part 2 of Mary's Story, a 3 part special episode of the Motherhood Metamorphosis. I’m your host, Brittany Meng, and this week, I’ll be reading my fictional account of what I think the first Christmas may have looked like, if Mary had written down her birth story for all of us to read. 

 I wrote this 3 part story in 2017, though it had been in my mind since my youngest son Elijah was born in 2014. His birthday is just 2 days before Christmas and while I was pregnant with him, I just couldn’t help but think about Mary, about what it must have been like for her—as a woman—to give birth to Jesus. What did she feel? How did the birth go? Did she really give birth in a dark, cold barn, surrounded by animal with only Joseph to assist? 

 This is a work of fiction but it is based on the Biblical accounts in Mathew and Luke, as well as a lot of research I did on ancient middle eastern culture and hospitality practices and really came up with a different narrative than the one that we’re so used to seeing in our modern Christmas culture where Mary is this pristine, clean, unruffled person dressed in blue and white, with no hint of a belly with her arms crossed over her chest kneeling beside a wooden manger. 

 So this is quite a different Christmas story than you may have heard before, or that has been portrayed in our culture through paintings, Christmas songs, and nativity scenes. But I hope that this un-sanitized, real, and authentic birth story will inspire you to view not only Mary in a new way, but your own motherhood as well as you move through your own metamorphosis and spiritual journey. 

 So welcome to Part 2 of Mary’s Story
By Brittany Meng

(If you can't wait for the next installment, you can read the rest of the story here)

Have a happy holiday, everyone! Regular episodes will resume on January 3, 2022