The word “merry” is rarely used anymore except in relation to Christmas, which reflects the jaded and conventional time in which we live. Busy people aren’t merry, though they might occasionally get plastered or fall over laughing. But in centuries past people could be merry without self-consciousness about it. The birth of a baby was a cause of joy and merriment. In times with high infant mortality, life was cherished while it lasted.
Did Joseph marry the virgin who told him she was pregnant? “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” (Mt. 1:20) So they lived together as if they were husband and wife. But when was the wedding? When did they become one flesh? The text doesn’t say. For all we know, Joseph accepted the social stigma of living with a single mother of questionable morals.
Who was and is Mary, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Mother of God? The “handmaiden of the Lord”, “blessed among women”, who found favor with God. The mother of the Messiah, the Savior, the Lord, the Son of God. A teenage girl was all that. A redeemed and saved child of God, with life everlasting and a home eternal in the heavens. And the mother of Christmas, a very merry, marry, Mary Christmas.