Dusk Til Dawn: The Promise — Tuesday
Luke 1:30-31
“Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.” (NLT)
The angel Gabriel is a busy guy in Luke’s gospel. Just 26 verses in, and he’s already on his way to tell yet another unexpecting person to start expecting. Elizabeth’s pregnancy may have been unthinkable with her old age, but Mary’s was downright unbelievable!
Most nativity scenes depict Mary as calm, pristine, and stoic, but that’s not how Luke tells the story. Mary was “greatly troubled” and “afraid” as she talked with Gabriel. This young Jewish girl, from the small village of Nazareth, was astonished. Even with her humble obedience, this new mom-to-be must have been reeling with questions and thoughts. So she hurried off to the one person who could possibly understand what she was going through—her relative, Elizabeth. After all, there were no “mom blogs” with tips and strategies, or books on What To Expect When You’re Expecting.
What will everyone else think? She’s pledged to marry Joseph—how will she tell him? How will he react? What about her friends and family? Maybe they’ll support her, but not the rest of the world—they’ll never understand. Nine long months of awkward explanations and scandalous rumors.
It wasn’t going to be easy. Yet Mary doesn’t negotiate with God. She humbly accepts, believing that God can do the impossible. Of course, she has desires for her life and how she thought things would go, but she lets go of those desires to grab hold of something infinitely better: God’s perfect, wise, and loving will for her life. Through her, the process of God’s incarnate Son coming to Earth began.
Psalms calls the process knitting—we are “knit together in our mother’s womb” (Psalm 139), a delicate intertwining of individual strands over and over again with intentional and loving care. With modern technology, we get a glimpse into this knitting through in-utero photographs and ultrasounds. But throughout human history, that wasn’t the case. That knitting process remained a secret. What it must have felt like when Mary rested her hand to feel the Hope of the World growing inside her womb… the prayers she must have prayed as she felt the King of King’s tiny heartbeat!
Christ came to our world through complete vulnerability—as a baby needing to be fed, changed, and rocked to sleep. Defenseless. Helpless. Powerless. What does it say to us about a God who’s willing to be this vulnerable with us? What does it say that He’s willing to wait and grow in the womb? Willing to be fearfully and wonderfully made just like we are? Why would He do it this way?
When we look at Mary, we learn a valuable lesson: God often fulfills His promises in ways we do not expect, ways that astonish us. Let that challenge us to accept our vulnerability just like a young mother and a tiny baby. Lean into His faithful and trustworthy hands.
Tuesday’s Reflection
What situation in your life is God asking you to trust Him in? Does it feel like a burden? Like a blessing? Like a mixture of both? What steps of faith can you take today to accept your vulnerability and remember His ability?
