“In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, ‘Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.’
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name 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 the house of Jacob 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 upon 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 barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.’
‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May it be to me as you have said. ‘Then the angel left her.”
Luke 1:26-38 (NIV)
Mary said yes to what the angel of the Lord told her, but with that decision came great anguish–anguish of misunderstanding at the time of His birth and anguish of misunderstanding later as she watched her beloved Son die on a cross. I thought of her as I read this poem by Charlotte Elliot in Charles Spurgeon’s Treasury of the Psalms, Volume 3:
From human eyes ’tis better to conceal
Much that I suffer, much I hourly feel;
But, oh, this thought can tranquilize and heal,
All, all is known to Thee.
Nay, all by Thee is ordered, chosen, planned,
Each drop that fills my daily cup, Thy hand
Prescribes for ills, none else can understand,
All, all is known to Thee.
–Charlotte Elliot
At one point I totally under-estimated Mary and her place in the life of Jesus, and in the life of believers for centuries to come. That’s because I’d been to one too many Catholic weddings where more attention is paid to Mary (laying roses at the foot of her statue in the church) than to Jesus or even God.
In recent years, though, I’ve rubber-banded back. I’ve come to realize that Mary, while not sinless, was a much more Godly woman than I am. When given an enormous task (from God himself!) she did not back away from the challenge. She accepted it with grace and courage. Every step of Jesus life she “pondered these things in her heart.” Have I done the same?
I love Mary now. I have total respect for her, and can’t wait to meet her some day and ask her just how she got through “all that” at such a young age, and with (seemingly) very few reservations.
I hope the next time God asks me to do something that 1) I recognize His voice; and 2) that I say “yes” as quickly as Mary did!