Our Gospel today is from Luke 1:26-38. We have read this and parts of this over this month already. One of the things I love most about reading scripture is that it is living and breathing. It transcends time and space! I can read the same scripture or same story many times spanning several years, but something different will jump out at me, or something new will speak to my heart! I say this because I want to encourage you to read anyway! God always has something to tell us and teach us.
In verse 28 and angel says to Mary "Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you."
What jumps out at me about this is that this greeting "greatly troubled" Mary and she had to ponder it! I don't know if I would be troubled being called favored and told that The Lord is with me, unless I understood scripture better.
I took a great study on Mary (Mary, A Biblical Walk with the Blessed Mother by Dr. Edward Sri). In it we see that others greeted with "The Lord is With You" include Moses and Gideon! "The expression is used in the Bible to address people God calls to crucial tasks, those in which the future of Israel is at stake and for which the appointed people are incapable, on their own, of performing."
Knowing this, Mary was probably pretty skeptical of what was about to be asked of her.
I might even feel like I was being "buttered up" for something I wasn't going to like!
Mary didn't shrink to the task asked of her. Mary shows a ridiculous amount of faith, courage and grace. She had some understanding that she was being asked to do something beyond her capacity and stepped up to the plate!
We need to show more courage like the blessed mother! We need to show more obedience like she showed. We need to stop running in fear from the things God is calling us to do. We need to start to say yes and allow Him to use us for His honor and glory.
This time of year we will see many Christmas movies. A favorite of so many is "It's a Wonderful Life." Just imagine if Mary went back and saw what would have become of the world if she didn't say yes? I don't want to wonder what could have or should have been! I want to have courage and obedience!
We don't always know when something big is going to come of our decision, but something will always happen or not happen based on everything we do or don't do. I don't ever want to look back and wonder "what could have been" if I only was obedient to God and gave Him my full effort, energy and my full YES.
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