Early in her life, Mary fully yielded to God. She was probably a young teen when an angel appeared, telling her: Though you are a virgin, you will have a son. Even more unbelievable, "The holy one to be born will be called the Son of God" (Luke 1:35).

In that crossroads moment, Mary didn't ask, "What will my parents think? What will the town think? What will my fiancé think?" She said, "I am the Lord's servant . . . May it be to me as you have said" (Luke 1:38).

Thirty years after Jesus' birth, Mary stood at another crossroads. John the baptizer had pointed to Jesus, crying, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29). Jesus himself had just begun to demonstrate who he is. John 2:1-5 says,

A wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus' mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus' mother said to him, "They have no more wine."

"Dear woman, why do you involve me?" Jesus replied. "My time has not yet come."

His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."

After Jesus performed the miracle Mary wanted, he went down to Capernaum with her "for a few days" (John 2:12). Scripture doesn't show Mary with Jesus again until the day of his death. John 19:25 says, "Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother."

Between the wedding feast and the cross, Mary appears only once, trying to get to Jesus. Matthew, Mark and Luke tell the story. As you read the verses, imagine you're the mom, and Jesus is your son:

Then Jesus' mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, "Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you."

"Who are my mother and my brothers?" he asked.

Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, "Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother" (Mark 3:31-35).

Jesus said what? His words sound insensitive, almost mean. When told that his mother had arrived, he did not call her forward and honor her as one who had spent a lifetime doing God's will. He publicly rebuffed her. He turned to a room full of strangers and said, "Here are my mother and brothers!"

"Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, 'He is out of his mind.' And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, 'He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons'" (Mark 3:20-22).

When visited by an angel, young Mary was troubled. But she quickly yielded to God - and entered his rest. During the tumultuous months of pregnancy and childbirth, God knows what rumors flew, what insults and hardships Mary faced. Her fiancé almost broke off the engagement. Mary made three arduous journeys - visiting her cousin Elizabeth in the first trimester, traveling to Bethlehem with the baby due, then fleeing to Egypt to save her newborn's life. Through it all, Mary displayed a serenity supernaturally endowed. Later, when 12-year-old Jesus got "lost," Mary panicked momentarily, but soon stepped back into rest.

We're so predisposed to see the serene Mary that we may not notice: Glimpses of Jesus' mother during his earthly ministry do not reveal a soul at rest.

Attending a wedding feast with her Son, Mary initiated a parental tug-of-war, if you will. At the crossroads where Jesus stepped out to do his Father's will, Mary wasn't yet willing to let go. She still expected her boy to do what she wanted. Notice what she did to get her way. She told Jesus, "They have no more wine." She didn't ask him to meet the need, yet clearly communicated her expectation. Undaunted by his protests, she then said to the household servants, "Do whatever he says."

She had every confidence Jesus would come through for her. Sure enough, Jesus honored her, and Mary got her miracle. But by insisting on getting her way, Mary distanced herself from the Son who had to be about his Father's business. After this trip to Cana and Capernaum, Scripture never again shows Mary traveling with Jesus.

No matter who we are, when we begin using control and manipulation to get what we want from God, we step off the path of godliness into a counterfeit we might call religion. Sometimes, such tactics do get us what we want. Sometimes, God in his mercy still acts. But always, such maneuvering distances us from Christ.

After Cana, Mary sat home, hearing reports about Jesus, instead of witnessing firsthand what he said and did. Then, her spiritual leaders began vehemently denouncing him. They called Jesus demon-possessed. When her own family members began saying, "He's lost his senses!" godly Mary fell further into the religious trap. She went with her other sons to grab her firstborn by the ear and take him home.

Incredible! Unthinkable! The father of lies hoodwinked the one person who knew the truth of Jesus' identity most fully, the one person who should have been most overjoyed at his "coming out." The testimony of Jesus' life - his fulfillment of Messianic prophecy, his identification of God as his Father, his authoritative teaching, his stunning works of power - rolled away the reproach from his mom! Everything he did and said confirmed her seemingly ridiculous story of his miraculous conception. Revealing himself, Jesus revealed his mother's greatest obedience - the pregnancy that, for three decades, people had considered her greatest shame.

Instead of reveling in that revelation, Mary listened to other voices. After all, Jesus had left her "out of the loop." His ministry, and the rancor it caused, didn't fit at all with the way she'd expected God's Son to reveal himself. And ever before her lay a prophecy she surely wanted to forget, promising pain she surely wanted to avoid. At Jesus' birth, Simeon had told her, "a sword will pierce your own soul."

Mary listened to people she trusted. They too should have recognized who Jesus was, but they, themselves, were hoodwinked. Her own family (Jesus' own half-brothers) and the "teachers of the law" (the conservative, Bible-believing pastors of the day) led her astray.