That haunting song you just heard, written by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene and sung so beautifully by Cheryl Sarfas (or Amy Ford), causes me to wonder, “What did Mary know? And, conversely, what did she not understand?”

Mary, the mother of Jesus, was probably about 14 years old when we meet her in Scripture. She was a simple Jewish girl born to Hannah and Joachim in the village of Nazareth, up in Galilee, the northern part of Israel. Mary’s parents were godly peasant folks whose only bragging point was that they were descendents of the great King David. But then, thousands of other people could claim that distinction also. It was sort of like being descendents of someone who came over on the Mayflower.

Mary had just become betrothed or engaged to a young carpenter named Joseph. During thi…