Continuing with the Christmas theme: Obedience
Christ left all, embraced the very hard and unpleasant, obeying to the end.
Then there is Mary, an unsuspecting teen-aged girl. I think she was happy to be engaged to a fine man like Joseph. And like most girls she probably dreamed of her wedding, of being an honorable wife and good mother, an upstanding member of her society.
Then an apparent tragedy struck as Gabriel appeared to the unsuspecting girl and gave her distressing news.
“You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus!” Can you imagine Mary’s shock at this announcement?
She lived in the Hebrew culture. To be found pregnant before marriage was not just a disgrace, it called for a death penalty! She would lose her husband, her future, her life. There was no visible , immediate advantage to accepting this offer.
But, here was a mighty angel speaking with her, promising great things for her future (perhaps she would not be executed after all!) and that she was being called to play a role in the great plans of God.
Pushing aside all her fears, she focused on the angel and his message as he went on to add, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
This didn’t seem to reassure Mary much as she went right to the point: “How will this be since I am a virgin?”
He explained to her, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”
I think she still hesitated, because the angel went on to say, “For no word from God will ever fail.” That is, “Trust God, trust His Word”
This seemed to convince Mary as it didn’t take her long to answer, “I am the Lord’s servant, may your word to me be fulfilled.”
She was willing to be obedient to the Lord in spite of the risks, the dangers, the uncertainty. She took up her role obediently and became the mother of the Christ!
