33. God's Glory in the Unexpected: What Mary's Messy Birth Teaches Us

In this episode, I'm exploring the Christmas story through the lens of Mary's birth experience—and what it teaches us about finding God's glory when our own births don't go according to plan.

This message came to me unexpectedly during a church service, when I suddenly saw Mary's story not just as a familiar Christmas narrative, but as a birth story. A messy, uncomfortable, nothing-like-she-planned birth story where God was glorified in every single moment.

Whether you're creating your birth plan, wrestling with fears about things going "wrong," or reflecting on a birth that took unexpected turns—this episode will encourage your heart with the truth that God's goodness isn't dependent on your circumstances being comfortable.

In this episode, I share:

🌟 How Mary's birth was actually chaotic, vulnerable, and nothing like anyone would plan 

🏚️ Why God chose a stable birth instead of a palace—and what that means for us 

✝️ The repeated command throughout Mary's story that speaks directly to our birth fears 

🙏 What "blessed is she who believes" really means for your birth journey 

💞 How unexpected moments in birth can become where we encounter God most deeply

Scripture Shared: 

"Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her." – Luke 1:45

Mentioned in this episode: 

✨ Christian Mama Birth Prep Library - Free birth prep tools, worship playlists & more

✝️ Online Christian Childbirth Education - Explore my complete birth preparation self-paced course

📞 Free 15-Minute Discovery Call: Schedule your no-obligation consultation with me today! I would LOVE to connect with you.

If this episode encouraged you, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a friend.

Let's keep choosing faith over fear, one birth story at a time. Go here for the full blog post, show notes, and all resources mentioned!

Transcript

Natalie Portman: 0:45

Hey there, mama, and welcome back to Faith Over Fear, the Christian Pregnancy and Birth podcast. I am especially excited to share today's episode with you, and today's message actually came to me in a pretty unexpected way. I was sitting in church a few Sundays ago and I was listening to the Christmas story that was being read, and suddenly I felt this overwhelming sense of the Holy Spirit just impressing something on my heart, and it was this. Mary's birth story was messy. It seemed pretty chaotic, and it was nothing like what anyone would have planned, and yet God was glorified in every single moment. And I thought about you, mama. I thought about the Christian moms I work with who carry this weight, this fear that if their birth doesn't go according to plan, somehow God won't be glorified or that he's not even in it. That if things take an unexpected turn, they've missed out on experiencing his goodness that a quote unquote good birth, a birth that honors God has to look a certain way. But what if I told you that the birth of Jesus that changed everything? Looked nothing like what anyone would've expected, and that in every uncomfortable, inconvenient, unexpected moment of the Christmas story, God's glory shined brighter than ever. And so that's what we're diving into today. And I wanted to talk about how God can absolutely be glorified and his goodness experienced and magnified in ways we never expected because that's exactly how he chose to enter this world. So let me ask you something. When you think about your ideal birth, what does it look like? Maybe it's a really peaceful home birth, surrounded by very select loved ones. Or maybe it's a beautiful hospital birth with your epidural in full swing. Maybe it's a planned C-section with your favorite worship music playing. Whatever it is, there's probably a picture in your mind of how you hope it will go, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. Having a birth plan, preparing, educating yourself. These are all good and wise things to do, but here is what I want you to hold onto today. God's goodness and glory are not dependent on your circumstances going according to plan. In fact, some of the most powerful testimonies of God's faithfulness come from the moments that look nothing like what we expected. And we see this truth right at the very beginning in the birth of Jesus. So let's walk through Mary's story together, but I want you to hear it not just as this familiar Christmas narrative, but as a birth story. Because when you look at it through that lens, you realize just how much didn't go according to any human plan. So it starts with Mary receiving news that would change her life forever. The angel Gabriel appears to her and tells her that she's going to conceive and bear a son, the son of God. Now, we often romanticize this moment because we know how the story ends, but put yourself in her shoes for a. She was very young. She was unmarried, and she was being told that she was going to be pregnant. This wasn't just unexpected, it was shocking. It was scandalous, and it really would've disrupted everything about her life that she knew. And yet Mary says yes, not because the circumstances were comfortable or convenient, but because she trusted God. But that didn't make everything suddenly easy. Mary's pregnancy created immediate strain in her relationship with Joseph. Her betrothed scripture tells us that when Joseph found out Mary was pregnant, he plans to quietly divorce her. Can you imagine the man that you're supposed to marry, the one that's meant to be your partner? He was just preparing to walk away, and it took an angel appearing to Joseph in a dream to convince him to stay. Even after Joseph chose to believe and stay by her side, there were still whispers. There were, I'm sure judgmental looks. There were people in Nazareth who did the math and were like, wait a minute. What's going on here? So Mary experienced that weight of judgment during her pregnancy, something that maybe you have experienced. Then right around her due time, there is a decree from Caesar Augustus, a census. Everyone has to return to their ancestral home to be registered. And for m and Joseph, that meant they needed to travel about 70 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem,. 70 miles. And while she was still fully pregnant, I don't know about you, but if you've ever been, in your, last month and you have a lot of errands to run. That feels exhausting, but I cannot even imagine going on a 70 mile journey on a donkey, that physical discomfort, the exhaustion and the anxiety of being so far from home and a support system when labor could start at any moment, I am sure this was not in Mary's birth plan. And then they get to Bethlehem and there's no room. No room for them, no private space, no comfortable bed, no midwife waiting for them. Scripture tells us that there was no room for them in the inn. They ended up in a stable, a place for animals. Can you possibly imagine giving birth in a stable? The smells, the lack of privacy, the cold dirt floor, whatever they had. This was not peaceful. This was not clean. This was not a prepared birth space that would be fit for any mother, let alone the mother of God. And who was her birth partner? It was just Joseph, not her mom. Not any experienced midwives, not any other women that had gone through this before. It was just her husband and they were trying to make the best of the circumstances. Neither of them could have possibly predicted. But then when Jesus is born, the Savior of the world, the Messiah and guess where he's laid, he is laid in a manger, a feeding trough for animals wrapped in strips of cloth because that's all they had. And then who were the first visitors? Not dignitaries, not religious leaders. Not even loving family members or friends who traveled to support them. The first people to hear about Jesus' birth were shepherds. The lowliest members of society. They were out in the fields watching their flocks. When suddenly an angel appeared and then a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and announcing this incredible news, these rough, probably smelly shepherds came to see the newborn king. Can you imagine Mary in the immediate postpartum haze, exhausted from labor holding her newborn son, and suddenly there were these strangers shepherds showing up to see him. But here's the thing. This again was not random. This wasn't God's scrambling to make the best of a really weird and awkward situation. This was God's plan. God chose shepherds to be the first witnesses God chose for Mary to give birth in a humble, stable, and it didn't end there later, wise men from the east who had been following a star, they brought gifts fit for a king, gold, frankincense, and myrrh. But their visit also brought danger because King Herod heard about this newborn king of the Jews, and felt threatened. So threatened that he ordered the killing of all boys in Bethlehem under the age of two. An angel appeared to Joseph warning him to flee. So Mary and Joseph with their newborn baby had to leave in the middle of the night and travel to Egypt. They became refugees, fleeing for their lives, starting their life as a family in a foreign land. None of this was straightforward. None of this was easy. None of this was comfortable, and yet this is so important. God was glorified in every single moment. His purposes were being accomplished. So what does this mean for us? What does Mary's birth teach us about our own births? First, I think it teaches us that God's goodness is not, again, dependent on our circumstances being comfortable. Mary's birth was hard, it was vulnerable. It was nothing like what any mother would hope for. But God's presence was there. His purposes were being fulfilled and his glory was fully on display. When your birth takes an unexpected turn, when, you need an intervention, you didn't plan for when you end up in a different birth setting than you had hoped for when your support system falls through or complications arise. God's goodness is not absent. In fact, it's often those very moments that we experience him most tangibly. Second, it teaches us that God's glory doesn't require our perfect circumstances. I want you to think about this. God could have orchestrated a palace birth for Jesus. He could have ensured that Mary had the most skilled midwives, the most comfortable setting perfect timing for the journey. But he didn't because his glory shines brightest. Not through our perfect plans, but through our trust in his perfect plans. Your birth doesn't have to look a certain way for God to be glorified. He is glorified when you trust him in all things. He is glorified when you surrender your plans to his purposes. He's glorified when you experience his peace. And his goodness and circumstances that on the surface don't really make sense. And then third, I think it teaches us that the unexpected can become the very place where we encounter God most deeply. Mary didn't just endure these circumstances. She experienced God through them. What if the moments in your birth that don't go according to plan become the very moments where you get to meet God in a way that you've never had the chance before? What if the vulnerability, the surrender, the complete dependence on him, opens your heart to experience his goodness in ways comfort never could? Throughout Mary's story, there's a phrase that keeps appearing, do not fear. The angel said this to Mary when he announced she would conceive. The angel said it to Joseph when he appeared in the dream and the angel said it to the shepherds when he announced Jesus' birth. Do not fear, did you know that? Do not fear or fear not. Appears over 365 times in scripture. And it's one of the most repeated commands in the entire Bible, and that is certainly not a coincidence. God knows that fear is our natural response to the unknown to circumstances that we cannot control. But do not, fear isn't just about calming your anxiety. It's an invitation to trust. It's God saying, I know this doesn't look like what you expected. I know this is hard. I know you're scared. But trust me, my plans are good. My purposes will prevail. I am with you. Remember that God is inviting you to trust him, not because he's asking you to deny the difficulty or deny the facts, but because he's promising you his presence and his goodness in the midst of it. There's a moment in Luke chapter one that I want us to focus on, and it's when Mary, after receiving the news that she's going to bear the Messiah, she goes and visits her cousin Elizabeth, who Elizabeth is also miraculously pregnant in her old age, and she's carrying John, who will become John the Baptist or John the Baptizer. And when Mary arrives, Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and she says something so profound. And this is Luke 1 45 and it says, blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her. Let that sink in for just a moment. Elizabeth doesn't say blessed is she who has everything figured out? She says, blessed is she who has believed. That the Lord would fulfill his promises to her. The blessing isn't in the ease of the journey or the comfort of the journey. The blessing is in the believing in the faith that's required. The blessing is trusting in the Lord. And Mary was blessed not because her path was easy, but because she trusted that God would fulfill his promises through her no matter what that path looked like. And Mama, this is so true for you. You are blessed when you believe that God will fulfill his promises through your birth. Whatever form that takes, you are blessed when you trust that God's goodness is present even in the unexpected, and you are blessed when you surrender your plans to his sovereignty and say like, Mary, I'm the Lord's servant. May it be to me, as you have said, the blessing is in the believing. God's promises are fulfilled even, and especially through unexpected paths. So just as we're a few days away from Christmas, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, I want to encourage you with this. The same God who was with Mary in that stable who orchestrated every detail of Jesus' birth for his glory and purposes is the same exact God who is with you. He sees you. He knows your fears about how this birth will go. He knows your hopes and your desires, and your dreams and your plans, but he is inviting you to trust him, not because he promises everything will go according to your plan, but because he promises that his plans are good and he will be with you every step of the way. That's what his name means. That's what Emmanuel Jesus's name means. God with us. His goodness can be experienced and magnified in ways you never imagined because that's how he chose to enter the world humbly, unexpectedly, and in circumstances that looked nothing like anyone would have planned or anticipated, but through it all his glory. Was shining through and continues to shine through. Before we close this episode, I wanted to just pray with you whether you're listening to this at the end of your pregnancy, or maybe you've already had your baby and you're reflecting on that birth experience but this prayer is for you, Lord Jesus, I thank you so much for coming into this world the way you did. Humbly unexpectedly showing us that your glory shines brightest when we trust you in the unexpected. Lord, I pray for this mama who's listening to my voice right now. I ask that you would fill her with your peace about her birth, help her to believe like Mary did, that you will fulfill your purposes through her, whether her birth goes according to plan or takes completely unexpected turns, remind her that you are with her and your goodness is present in every single moment. I ask, Lord Jesus, that you would replace any fears that she's carrying with trust in your faithfulness. Blessed is she who believes that you will fulfill your promises to her. I ask this all in Jesus name. Amen. I hope this episode has encouraged your heart. As we head into this Christmas season, I pray that you feel a renewed sense of hope and trust in the Lord, not just for your birth, but for every area of your life where things maybe have not gone according to plan. And if you're looking for some more support as you prepare for your birth I would love to come alongside you. Head over to faithoverfearbirth.com to see all the ways I can support you, whether that's through virtual birth support or my online childbirth education course. I'm here for you and I believe that with the right preparation, biblical encouragement, and faith centered support. You can walk into your birth with confidence and peace knowing that God is with you every step of the way. Merry Christmas, mama and I will see you next time.