The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Luke 1:28 NIV
As it is the Christmas season I have been reflecting on Christmases past… and how nice it must have been to plan a schedule for my day and have it go, well, according to the schedule! How did my days ever not go as planned prior to having a baby? It was just me and my husband—how did the schedule get messed up? Now don’t get me wrong—I love our little baby! As I just said, I can’t remember what life was like before we had him. But…the one thing we can count on now is that pretty much nothing will go according to plan.
Our son is a pretty good little baby; he’s a little on the fussy side but he has a schedule that he more or less sticks to and that makes things a little bit easier. But it never fails, the day we have plans or that we’re hosting a holiday party and my husband is busy with his own things, is always the day that my son decides not to nap! I do talk to my son about following his schedule. He insists that 30 minutes is plenty of time for a 6-month-old baby to nap! I don’t like it when he doesn’t follow his schedule because that reminds me that I don’t have total control over this child, and I rather like having some control over my life.
Having a little baby boy at this time of year I can’t help but be reminded of the Christmas story of Christ’s birth. How must it have been to be Mary? She had to give up control over her life. There Mary was, a young woman in a day and age when women had very little value or rights apart from the man to which they were married. She most likely didn’t know Joseph very well and he was also most likely quite a bit older than she. Mary was probably at least a little nervous and apprehensive about her upcoming marriage. Then she gets the shock of her life.
An Angel tells her she has been chosen to be the earthly mother of the Lord Jesus Christ. What an honor! But also what a weight to carry. Even though the Jews knew that eventually, someone would immaculately conceive the Messiah they were still about as likely to believe that she was the one, as you and I would be if someone tried to sell us that story today. Mary had to tell her family and Joseph, and pray that they believed her. She had to have great faith. At first, Joseph didn’t believe her; he was going to quietly break off their engagement—until an angel appeared to him in a dream and told him not to. Thankfully Joseph listened.
God interceded on Mary’s behalf with her family but what faith she had to have! Faith that she could only have by giving up control and trusting in God. He had chosen to bless her above all women as the one who would carry and bring Jesus into this world. Mary could have argued. She could have asked not to be the one to have her life complicated by this blessing. She could have been like Moses and asked God to choose someone else, but she didn’t. Mary received, what I would argue to be the biggest blessing anyone in this world could have, but it wasn’t easy. She had to accept it and the weight of all that came with it. She had to give up caring about what people thought of her. She had to let go of whatever plans she had for her life. She had to give up control and have faith. What would we have done in her place?
Would we have so gratefully accepted God’s will in our life? What blessings would have been robbed from Mary if she had argued! What do we miss out on because we are not willing to step out in faith and give up control over the plans we have for our lives?
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