Shortly before Christmas, God put on my heart the story of Jesus’ birth, particularly Mary’s role in Jesus’ birth. I felt prompted to write about it but got very sick and busy.
As the new year began, I felt God nudging me again. “But Christmas is over,” I thought. However, what God has been teaching me from this story is not over.
I’ve mentioned in an earlier post that this season I’ve felt more aware of expectation as my husband and I are expecting for the first time. I’ve also felt a little more connected to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, since she was pregnant or had a newborn during the Christmas Story.
As I read through first chapter in Luke, I couldn’t help but put myself in Mary’s shoes. She was young, unmarried, and Joseph could have divorced her/ended their engagement. Having your significant other leave you after you tell them you’re pregnant would be devastating in this day and age, let alone over two thousand years ago when women were dependant on men to survive. How could something so uncertain be part of God’s plan?
Of course before any of this rolls into motion, the angel Gabriel visits Mary.
But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 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.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “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. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. (Luke 1:30-38 NIV).
Maybe I have more trust issues than Mary and maybe the Bible left out any internal turmoil she may have been feeling, but I feel like she took the news rather well. Gabriel DID give her GOOD news, but the circumstances were not ideal.
Fast forward to when Jesus is going to be born and Mary has to travel, away from home, to a different town because there was a census (Luke 2:1 NIV), she goes into labor, gives birth to Jesus, and has to place him in a manger because THERE WAS NO ROOM IN THE INN (Luke 2:6-7 NIV).
This story is familiar to me and has been heard and read over and over throughout my life. A few times, I’ve thought, “well that wasn’t very convenient.” But it wasn’t until this year that I thought, “WHAT WAS GOING ON?!”
You mean to tell me the God’s son, the Savior of the world could not have a pleasant or at least normal birth? Instead his poor mother has to travel, give birth away from home for the first time, probably alone and with little to no assistance, and she is around livestock because she couldn’t at least have her baby in an actual building made for human beings. It is so bizarre.
We don’t have a social media post or birth story/announcement from Mary to tell us how she felt about every millisecond of Jesus’ birth. Really, the only information we have about how she felt or decided to feel about the situation is from Luke 1:38 (NKJV) “ […] Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”
The confidence in this statement is incomprehensible for me. How often do things go wrong in our life, are inconvenient, or confusing and so quickly we (or at least I!) start to second guess God’s plan.
The enemy is so good at lying to us in these moments.
“Did God really say?” “Did you misunderstand?” “Everything is going wrong, this can’t be God’s plan.”
Has the enemy been speaking similar things to you, “Did God really tell you to start your own business?” “Did God really say to buy that house?” “Do you really know who God says you are?”
Long story short, Jesus was born and Mary raised him. He died for the world, giving eternal life and sent the Holy Spirit to be with us after ascending into heaven. Mission accomplished. The details of how he came into the world were not convenient or ideal but the mission was still accomplished and had an everlasting, immeasurable, and unfathomable impact.
Lately, there have been some circumstances in my life that have made it easier to entertain questions like some of the ones above. But I strive to be more like Mary whose response was “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be to me according to your word.”
Will you stay the course and walk confidently in what God has spoken to you as Mary did or be swayed by your circumstances? As difficult as it may be at times, I pray for myself and for you, that we will always say yes to Jesus “let it be to me according to your word” and be patient enough to watch the everlasting, immeasurable, and unfathomable impact unfold.