Every year, HPCUMC provides poinsettias for purchase that are used to celebrate loved ones as part of our Advent and Christmas celebration. These plants are beautiful, yet toxic for pets, and is called our [American] “Christmas Flower.” The flower we use to spread the joy of Christ’s coming.
However, when looking at the history of this plant, we see the assumptions we make based on a flower we think we know so well. The “poinsettia” finds its native roots in western Mexico with the Nahuatl people who called this plant “cuetlaxochitl (kwet-la-sho-she).” Cuetlaxovhitl was used by the Aztecs long before European colonizers “discovered” this plant. Swansons Nursery gives a history of this and states, “The Aztecs used cuetlaxochitl for a variety of purposes, including decoration and the production of red and purple dyes, as well as for medicines derived from the plant’s milky white sap.” In 1828, Joel Roberts Poinsett, the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, brought this plant back to the United States to his greenhouse in South Carolina. As he began to grow more and more of this plant, he shared it with friends and neighbors, and ultimately is celebrated for not only “introducing” this plant to the United States but for also co-founding the Smithsonian Institution. One thing that is left out of his history that Swansons Nursery wants us to know- “his legacy as a slave owner and his role in the displacement of countless Native Americans has led some people today to reject the name “poinsettia” in favor of the plant’s Native name, cuetlaxochitl.”
How does this connect to Mary? Well, I invite you to ask yourself what assumptions you make about the scripture that maybe isn’t actually there? That the Magnificat and the story of Mary that we know today has much more context, much more substance, than maybe we even know or have grown to believe. As we explore the Magnificat in preparation for Christmas Eve, along with the assumptions I also carry, I am reminded of what Scott Erikson writes in Honest Advent:
“It’s assumed that Mary rode on a donkey, but the Bible doesn’t say she did.
It’s assumed there was an innkeeper, but it doesn’t mention one anywhere.
It’s assumed there were three Magi, but it doesn’t give a number of those who showed up.
It’s assumed there was a star overhead when Jesus was born, but it doesn’t say that either…
Our assumptions hinder our spiritual journey in all kinds of ways, and the antidote to assumption is surprise.”
I invite you to enter into the element of surprise with me as we explore our assumptions, our own conclusions about Mary, as we continue our Advent journey.