Day 14
Highly Favored by Jenny S.
Sometimes it’s easy to glaze over a passage like this because it’s either so familiar to us or because we’re reading it more like a fiction novel than a historical account.
Pause to consider, we are reading a real account of God coming towards an ordinary teenage girl to deliver a message through an actual angel. Different translations give us a glimpse into what Mary was feeling at that moment by using words like troubled, confused, perplexed, and disturbed.
Mary had every reason to reject the Angel’s message! It carried the potential to end her engagement and bring public shame on herself and her family! But how quickly, she aligns with God’s will, saying “May your word to me be fulfilled.” How did she do this—could such a submission be possible for us?
In verse 30, Gabriel tells Mary she is highly favored—before she had done a thing! This tells us that God’s favor wasn’t based on her performance! Mary didn’t fully understand all the details of what God was telling her would happen, but she believed that everything He had said was true, even in what seemed like the impossible.
For us, there will always be some level of mystery around God; things we don’t understand, stories that lack the details we want, and ‘why questions’ without answers. But we can come to God with the same childlike faith that Mary had, saying “I don’t understand everything, but I believe you.”
In return, we can rest in the favor of God that we know we have through Jesus. That is the gift of Christmas.