Why Consider the Real Mary?

It is only February (and that, barely), and I have run into questions because of my rosary journey.

Not like I didn't expect this. As a child I was taught The Hail Mary, and as an adult I recall that the rosary somehow required the saying of it.

My own rosary will not require it. My own is a promise I have not yet begun to understand. (See? Just the other day I took it out in the snow. It is a non-conformist rosary which will not always bend to traditional use— of course it would be like this, considering who gave it to me).

Still. The very sight of the rosary brings with it questions of Mary.

And what are questions for, except to prod us to thinking?

So I bought another copy of a book I once gave away. It is Scot McKnight's and I love the opening...

"Why are you— a Protestant— writing a book about Mary?" I've been asked this question many times. In fact, one person asked me the following question: "Wasn't Mary a Roman Catholic? (No kidding.)

Why write a book for Protestants about Mary? Here's why:

Because the story about the real Mary has never been told...

This seems like a place to start, in answering the questions my rosary raises. The story of Mary. I love a good story, and I suspect my rosary might too.

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Quote from Chapter 1 of Scot McKnight's book The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus