Every
Christmas since I was a child, I think of Mary, serenely and quietly sitting,
holding the baby Jesus, glowing, smiling. And unrealistic. She was just a girl,
given a task of birthing the Savior of the world.
Mary. A young girl, thought to be barely a teenager, caught between childhood and adulthood, yet promised to a man she hardly knew, who was already planning their lives together.
But here's
my burning question: How did Mary find her favor with the most high God?
What Mary
was asked to do was hard. She was potentially risking it all, according to the
culture of the day. Rejection of family and friends, the inability to ever
marry or be able to make a living. Could she have told the angel 'no'? I
believe so but I also believe that God knew what her answer would be and that
she would do what was being asked of her. But she was terrified and all she had
go by was what an angel was telling her, which contradicted everything her mind
was telling her.
The angel
said, "Do not be afraid." Mary trembled in fear.
The angel
said, "You will become pregnant." Mary knew she'd never been intimate
with any man, including her fiancé.
The angel
said, "Your cousin, who is a little past her prime, is pregnant-6
months!"
And Mary
pauses. Even though she might lose it all, she pauses. Without having the
entire picture in front of her, she pauses. She trembles in fear, but she
pauses still. And in that pause, she
speaks her heart.
Are we like Mary?
Even when God is doing something through us because he has found favor with us,
do we tremble in fear? Do we question our
worth? Our abilities? Do we beg him to choose someone else? But what if we are
THE ONE? The one with whom God has found favor. Not the first and not the last
(God has found favor with many and will find it with many more) but the ONE for
this moment? The ONE who can minister to someone else who needs to know someone
cares. The ONE who can remind someone that God still cares. The ONE who can
share her story of redemption.
After all of
those emotions, Mary says, "May it be. I am the Lord's servant. May it be
according to His will."
From fear to
surrender. Fear is all consuming and tells us why we shouldn't do what is being
asked of us. Surrender is yielding to the authority of someone else,
acknowledging their authority and wisdom. Fear will beg us not to give up
control. Because what will happen if we give up control of our lives? BUT WHAT
COULD HAPPEN IF WE GIVE UP CONTROL OF OUR LIVES?
But Mary did
not just surrender, she submitted. She put her fears, needs, and her very self aside and served her God with her
heart, her body, and her life. God's plans became more important that her own
life plans. She chose to submit but also chose not to do so begrudgingly.
Hasn't God
asked to do everything he asked Mary to do? Submission and surrender, even when
it is scary, unsure, and our head tells us it will all fall apart. Surrender
feels impossible in the moment. We feel like we are giving up so much, and
maybe we are. But what if what we are gaining in the trade off is so. much.
more???
What if the
life we feel like grasping on to is such a small part of the life He desires
for us? What if Mary had said "No"? Would God have punished her? Ruined
her life? I don't believe so because that's not the character of the God I serve. But look at what she would have
missed. Being the mother of Jesus. All the joy, so much pain but the MOM OF
JESUS.
What is God
asking us to surrender to this Christmas season? This year? This lifetime?
Maybe in our surrender we will change the course of our lives, our family's
lives, and the lives of those around us. May we surrender every moment and
every day. May we surrender in the small ways and the big ways. There is peace
in the surrender even in uncertainty. How can we fear the outcome when we know
our lives are held in the hands of King Jesus?
