My friend doubt

Love times a thousand the message we had at church Sunday morning. This particular preacher tends to bring a real, new perspective on passages of the Bible that we've all heard many times before.

This was the story of the journey of Mary, Jesus' mother, prior to His birth and the growing up part of Jesus' life up until He was about 12 years old. Long story short, even though Mary had been visited by angels before Jesus' birth, visited by shepherds and strange, wise men after His birth, and had a huge star above the place she gave birth (I thought of  this one!), her and Joseph were still amazed by the words Simeon spoke when they took Jesus to the temple when He was a week or so old.

New Zealand actress Keisha Castle-Hughes playing Mary in the movie The Nativity Story

Photo from here

And spite of all that had happened and all that was said, she was still surprised when 12 year old Jesus went missing after the annual trip to Jerusalem and was later found in the temple, learning from the scholars and asking questions.

She had a friend that we all have: doubt. And we tend to get more and more friendly with doubt as the years pass by and the words we once believed have not yet happened.

But without doubt, there is no room for faith. If we weren't doubtful about the outcome of something, we wouldn't need to exercise our faith because we'd already know that it was going to be ok.

Yes! Doubt is my friend. Because it gives me the opportunity to be a woman of faith.