Month: November 2017

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Build. Plant. Eat. Marry.

Jeremiah faced a nation pretty much all by himself. He spoke for God; but few listened and heeded the words given to him to tell. He addressed kings and priests, noblemen and soldiers. His words were strong, warning of the consequences to come from the people’s years of idolatry and ignorance of the Lord and His commands. Truth hit closed ears and hardened hearts and so it fell in the street. As a result, large numbers of Judah’s citizens were taken captive, forcibly relocated away from their Promised Land.

From Jerusalem to Babylon, they went. Members of the Lord’s chosen nation, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were placed under heathen authority. They had taken a fancy to pagan idols with their practices and were given over to a pagan government.

They were strangers again, just as they had been in Egypt. They became the object of taunts — Psalm 137 describes how the captors mocked and bid them to sing the “songs of Zion.” The living conditions and bitter memories did prompt a measure of religious response as new fast days were instituted. Perhaps, they assumed, God would see how sorry they were and bring deliverance as He had in the days of Moses.

The Voice of the Prophet

Jeremiah had another message, however. It was this:  “Build ye houses, and dwell in them; and plant gardens, and eat the fruit of them; Take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons, and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; that ye may be increased there, and not diminished. And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace” (Jeremiah 29:5-7 KJV).

Build. Plant. Eat. Let there be weddings and births. Grow as a community of families.

These were Jeremiah’s words. They were exhortations to activity, to work, and to love among themselves and toward their neighbors. The captives were not to hunker down and become invisible. They were not to become agitators and rebels. Instead, they were to trust God to work things together for His good. Be at work and, as you work, be witnesses.

Some prophets had forecast a short stay for the captives in Babylon. These communications produced a false peace and a deceptive sense of security. The truth of the matter was that the people of Judah would be there for more than a generation. No storms of fiery hailstones or miraculous divisions of the seas were to come upon this city. Judgment would indeed fall upon Babylon, but not until God had used her in His providence.

A Tarnished Testimony

Israel and its people had long lost sight of their original mission. Father Abraham was told that in his seed, all the nations of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 22:18).

This delivered people took up their place in the land to be a testimony for the Lord to ends of the earth. God spoke to them through Moses — they learned His Name and received the oracles from heaven. They were given commandments and ordinances.

At this point in time, the people of the Lord had become poor testimonies of Him. The beauty of His holiness was obscured. The God of Israel was known among the kingdoms of the region, and He was feared. The stories of His magnificence were taken seriously.

A man like Jeremiah and his message did get attention – in the Babylonian court of King Nebuchadnezzar. Once, Jerusalem was sacked and burned and its Temple destroyed, Nebuchadnezzar sent word to Jeremiah. The prophet was offered a place of safety and, likely, comfort in Babylon. All that Jeremiah proclaimed about the empire had come true. What leader wouldn’t covet such a man to be among his advisers? But the prophet refused the king and chose to stay among the remnant of poor farmers and laborers left among the ruins of Judah. There was work and ministry for him then and there.

And there was work and ministry for the Jews in Babylon.

Seek the Peace

Build. Plant. Eat. Make homes for yourselves. This was the essence of Jeremiah’s message to the people. In doing these basic and necessary things, these people would “seek the peace of the city.”

Jeremiah recalled Israel to the mission. Bless the nations of the world by being who you were made to be. Get to work and love one another. The Babylonians will notice and some will believe. Peace, it comes only from the Lord, and the people of Israel knew the Lord.  Get to work and love one another, they we told in so many words.

It’s really the message Jesus gave His disciples at the Passover before Good Friday. Calvary was coming in hours, and the Savior poured out His heart to His closest followers, to the ones chosen to witness His life, His death, and – soon to come – His resurrection.

Forgive and wash feet, the disciples were told. “Love one another as I have loved you,” Jesus told them.

Build – Grow in the precious faith of the Son of God.

Plant – Sow the seeds of the Gospel.

Eat – Break the bread and share the cup in communion, always remembering the Lamb who was slain.

Marry and give in marriage – Help families to flourish and form church communities that make a difference in neighborhoods, cities, states, and nations.

Our days on earth are few. Many of them are filled with struggle and anxiety, and for good reason – we aren’t really at home here and now. Yes, we make homes, but we don’t feel at home. We know that there’s another City — the New Jerusalem — that shall be set in place. We read and treasure the promise related to that time and place to come.

For now, let us listen to the prophet.

Let’s  build, plant, and eat. Let our homes be full of love and laughter and light. May they be places of comfort for the grieving and shelters for the weak, wounded, and weary.  In these ways, we seek the peace of our cities.

 

 

 

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The Woman and Her Bucket

High noon, it was, and such a strange hour to come to the village well. This woman tried to sneak around right there in the bright, hot sun. She plotted to drop her pail, get her water, and be gone before anyone could notice her.

Her ways were well known in Sychar; the tawdry details of her life filled the gossipy chatter that often went on here. The “water cooler” talk of those days revolved around her many failed relationships.

She’d become fairly adept at fast-filling her pot and getting home. This way she avoided her neighbors who brought their buckets during the day’s cooler hours.

This day would be different, however. She would find a Man – tired from travelling and all alone – resting at the well. She moved quickly, wanting to get her water and escape. Maybe this Man would be too weary to take note of her presence.

Men! They always presented problems for her. She knew them pretty well – she had encountered quite a few during her years. Mostly, they had left her disappointed and disillusioned. She sized up this one with a quick glance and discerned that this Man was Jewish. That bit of information caused her to relax – Jews don’t speak to Samaritans like her, she reasoned, and she let down her guard.

A Request

“Excuse me,” spoke this Stranger. “Could you give me a drink?”

The interruption both startled and annoyed her. “Typical man,” she thought to herself. “He wants something – just like all the rest.”

“Seriously?” she answered. “You’re a Jew, I’m Samaritan – aren’t you afraid my water will make you ‘unclean’?”

Jesus responded, “Really, you should be asking Me for a drink. If you knew God and who I am, you would ask for the ever fresh, living water that I can give.”

This woman marveled at the offer. The Man had no bucket and the well was old and deep. How was He going to get this water for her? She thought it was a trick and decided to play along with Jesus. “This well is an ancient one — it was dug by Jacob himself. Are you telling me that you’re a better man than him?”

She played herself right into Jesus’ trap. He spoke to her of a different kind of water, water that refreshes the spirit and leaves one never to be thirsty again. “The water I give,” Jesus said, “is a gushing fountain of endless life.”

Those words struck a chord within her. “Sir, give me this water,” she said. Her words carried a tone of hope. This touched her like no other promise she had ever heard before. Could it be true?

When Jesus asked her to first fetch her husband, her answer was, for once, honest and forthright:  “I have no husband.” Something big began to happen, a saving thing, a redemptive encounter unfolded.

There was no deception in her now. She withered as Jesus recounted her relationship history – five broken marriages and the unlawful living arrangement she had with her present partner.

Worship Redefined

She knew a bit about religion – perhaps she had tried to worship the Lord. The mount near Sychar had been something of a holy place. At that time, among the peoples of the region, Samaritans were ostracized and none dared try to make his way to the Jerusalem Temple to make an offering.

Yet in that moment, we see Jesus begin to define what worship really is. It is a matter of the heart, not a matter of place and time. “The hour is now that true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in truth,” He declared to her.

The climactic moment in this whole encounter is described in John, chapter 4. The woman speaks of the Promised Person, the Messiah, the Anointed One. It had always been her understanding that the Savior would come and “tell us all things.”

“I AM the One,” Jesus said to her. It was a direct, declarative statement defining the reality of who He is. This weary, worn out, thirsty woman got the message straight from the Messiah’s lips. He came to this woman, told her her own story as only He could tell it, and then revealed Himself to her.

Result:  she became a witness.  Suddenly full of living water, she dropped her bucket and ran back to the village. She gathered her neighbors and led them out to meet Jesus. His words touched many from her town. His message was so profound to them that they begged Him to keep talking.

Jesus and His disciples stayed in a Samaritan village for two more days. “We have heard him ourselves and know that this indeed is the Christ, the Savior of the world” was the testimony of Sychar’s people.

This is how God works His wonders in the fields that are ready to harvest. There are people everywhere who are thirsty for life. They struggle under the weight of their bad choices and poor surroundings.

And, then, Jesus shows up, making Himself known.

He has made us for this work. He has spoken to us about who He really is.

May we respond as this woman did. May we be mighty witnesses for the reality of the Christ, the Savior of the World.

 

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Father and Contest

The Father and the Contest — these words are part of being a believer in Christ. When I become a Christian, I enter into a relationship and regiment. I am part of the family of God and also a soldier in the Army of the Cross.

These days we seem get a lot of information, a lot of communication, on what it means to be a son or a daughter, but precious little is taught about being a warrior. This is what I would call a false balance and the book of Proverbs says that such thing is an abomination. That big word carries a weightiness about it and it should. But at its core the word is defined as something that drags man down. Man was made to be sublime; that is, God designed him to reign. Anything that pulls man beneath his dignity, anything takes below his status as the king of the earth he made to be, is abomination. So it is with any false balance.

Balance in our lives involves being rightly related and also ready to fight. For this reason, we get both pictures of home and fortress in describing the roles of the Church in the world.

The disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray for John the Baptist had taught his disciples to pray. Jesus said when you prayer begin this way: “Our Father.” The sense of the fatherhood of God was a new one. Israel had been addressed this way at several points in the Old Testament, but the message did not get through. God revealed Himself to Moses as I AM THAT I AM or Yahweh. This personal name for the LORD marked a departure from the name Elohim that had been the common moniker used among the people of Abraham. God was speaking as the I AM to HIs people who are.

Christ entered the world to bring the reality of God’s Personhood to full fruition. Jesus is the Word made flesh, the Word that was, is, and always will be, confined Himself to a human body subject to all the ordinances and laws governing creation. God became one of us so that He could perish as one of us. It was the grand design of redemption.

The Father — this is who God is to us. Jesus emphasized this to HIs Apostles and we read this throughout the writings of John. It should not surprise us that John penned these pictures for us to read. He among all the Apostles kept himself close to his Master always. He, his brother James, and Peter were privy to things the other Apostles were not. John was there when Jairus’ daughter was called back from the dead. John was there on the Mount when Jesus was transfigured into Light and counseled by the resurrected forms of Moses and Elijah. John was there leaning upon Jesus at the supper before the day of the Cross, staying near the heart of the Teacher as He expounded the reality of the new relationship that grace, truth, and the Spirit would bring to those called out into Heaven’s flock. John lived longest of the Apostles. He lingered into his 90s while the others were cut down by tyrants and persecutors. This blessing of years that John perhaps saw as something of a curse at times gave him more time to ponder and consider the Way.

It was John who related to us how Jesus prayed to the Father for HIs disciples to experience the fullness of being One with Him and so also being One in the Father. It was John who also spoke of those whom he discipled in the faith of Christ as little children. He admonished them to keep themselves from idols.

Father God, Abba, Daddy, Dad, Papa. These terms of endearment and closeness say something to every heart. Relationship, not religion, is the key to living for God. Jesus put this point before the legalists dominating Jewish life in the Roman era. He healed on the Sabbath and created conflict with traditions that obscured the face of God with ceremony and ritual. The Pharisee treated their animals better than the congregants in their synagogues. Mercy and justice and care and compassion represented the weighty things of God’s Law. In centering the heart on these, one could follow the commandments with clarity and alacrity.

Jesus reduced true religion to three very simple rules: Hear God, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. All of these things involve relationship. Listen, Jesus said. This is the starting point. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Listen and be equipped to love God and your neighbor. Hear what the Father speaks and let it sink deeply into your heart and become part of your frame of reference.

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A Small Beginning

Jesus came small. Too small for some. He entered humanity as an infant born to a poor couple from Nazareth. His appearance was marked by a bit of spectacle, but that display was reserved for shepherds; crusty, hard-scrabble men who watched over their flocks even in the dark and cold of night. These working men, small people by society’s standards, were treated to a visitation of angels, a glorious host proclaimed the news of Christ’s coming directly. No riddles, no rhymes, no parables, no puzzles for these guys. Just the facts — “Unto you this day is born the Savior, Christ The Lord.” He’s in the city of David, in Bethlehem, said the angels. How will you know Him? Think small. Think poor. The Savior will be a baby, swaddled in rags, lying in a feeding trough. The little Lord Jesus, asleep on the hay. This is how the Christmas song goes.
God came small. It was this way because small things are seen only by those who focus. Jesus was and is missed by many. If Jesus came big, as someone with weight to throw around, some would attach themselves to His party but never open their hearts to know Him and welcome Him. Many people, maybe most people, seek to be part of the popular. They revel in being “with” it. The famous and fabulous captivate them. The selfie culture perpetuates being pictured with someone rather being someone.
Jesus came small. This points to His humility. The One who made all things subjected Himself to His own order in all Creation. He walked and talked, this was how His message got out. He slept and wept, this is how His humanity and heart were revealed. Those looking for Him saw Him and Knew Him. Simeon, a determined old saint, hung his faith on a promise from the Spirit. The word Simeon got was that his life would be complete when he saw the Lord’s salvation. He came daily to the Temple with this expectation in his heart.
God came small. There He was now in Simeon’s arms, the baby, the Son of Mary and Joseph. Simeon was looking for Him. When He came, Simeon knew Him. There are people such as this everywhere. The Bible story shows us. With Simeon was a widow, Anna. She, too, abiding in the place of worship looking for the One to worship. The wise men of the East studied the sky and were given a star to follow, a simple sign. These astronomers, men of science and seeming intelligence take note and take action. Their discerning hearts told them that this star belonged to a king and not just any king, the King of the Chosen People of Israel.
Jesus came small. Peace on earth, how does happen? The angels told the shepherds that peace was, in fact, on earth. Rulers and ambassadors and diplomats fashion complicated treaties and agreements. These work for a season, but men violate the vows they make so easily. Peace is not in words, it is in Person of the Word, the Person of Christ. Embrace Him and peace is found. Oh, not worldwide, political, cultural harmony — this is not what Jesus came to bring. That’s big. He came small. Peace came small, by human standards. He had no public relations campaign.
God came small. See Him in struggling, but determined families. This is where He is big, really big. They hold fast to Him in prayer. They shout and sing and believe. And God shows up for them. I know this. I saw this. And I’ve never been the same.

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Joseph and His Leap of Faith

Joseph is a man we know very, very little about. This carpenter of Nazareth stood with Mary in a difficult time, a time when she and he would have been greatly misunderstood.

The first chapters of Matthew and Luke provide the details surrounding this young couple. They were betrothed. The contract for their marriage had been agreed upon, but they had not come together yet as man and wife. Into this poor, but seemingly neat and tidy world comes Gabriel, from the Throne of Heaven. This angel’s message to Mary is this: “Fear not, Mary, for you have found with God. And behold  you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus.”

And so Mary was found with child, and Joseph, a kind man, thought to terminate the marriage without fanfare. He refused to make a display of her. This revealed the heart of mercy in this man, and also his love for this woman. By the law of Moses, Mary would be counted to have committed adultery and  been subject to stoning. The evidence was there to see.

As Joseph made his considerations, the angel of the Lord spoke to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David, fear not to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.” Notice the way Joseph is addressed as “son of David.” The gospel of Matthew begins with the declaration of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David. This first gospel of our New Testament was given to speak to the Jewish population regarding the Person of Christ.

A Messianic Expectation

The Jewish people now under the government of the Roman Empire carried an Messianic expectation for their King. This King would, of course, be from the line of David, the dynasty settled in the books of Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, and Psalms.

Jesus, Son of David, and Joseph, son of David — it had to be this way for the fulfillment of the prophecies and promises proclaimed centuries before. The Son to come from Mary would save His people from their sins, the carpenter was told.

Did Joseph buy into the divine plan? He did, for he awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the Lord commanded, taking Mary as his wife and did not consummate the relationship till the Son was born. This brings us to what grew into a point of contention throughout church history. Did Joseph ever have sex with Mary? The Bible record here says that he did not know her until after Jesus is born. Later, in Matthew, we read the names of the brothers of Jesus and also that there were sisters who grew up in the Nazareth household.

the legend of mary

Things have been fabricated about Joseph in order to create an unscriptural portrait of Mary. Her status was elevated and she came to be viewed as one who was always a virgin and without sin as Christ was without sin. Yet, in Luke 1, Mary herself proclaims her need for the Savior. The legend of Mary grew to include the idea that she was assumed into Heaven; that is, her body was carried away and did not suffer decay as other human bodies. Nothing into the New Testament record remotely indicates this event.

As for the matter of Joseph, he came to be celebrated for his celebacy regarding Mary. On St. Josephy’s feast day, he is called a hero for never having had sex with Mary.  Legend grew that Joseph was an older man and had children from a previous marriage, which covers the Scriptures relating to Jesus’ brothers and sisters.

“And he called His name Jesus.”

Joseph was a man of faith and integrity. His heart followed after the mission of God. He stuck with Mary and raised Jesus, despite the gossip that surely circulated through Nazareth and the regions populated by the Jews. Our New Testament’s begin with his family tree.

Great is God’s faithfulness to those who answer His call no matter the consequences and circumstances.

 

 

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Bound to Life Through Fear of the Lord

The fear of the Lord is THE beginning. We first come upon this phrase in Proverbs 1. These words fall at the end of Solomon’s introduction to this collection of instructions. Eugene Peterson, the pastor-teacher who produced The Message translation of the Bible, indicates that the “fear of the Lord” is a “bound” phrase – it is not to be dissected. These words, in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament, are always viewed as a whole. Fear of the Lord points to relationship, to responsive living. That is, we hear from God and answer Him.

This began in Eden with Adam. He heard from the Lord: “Be fruitful and multiply. … Dress and keep the garden. … Name all the animals. … Eat from all the trees, but do not eat from this one, lest you die.” These things Adam did. He listened and responded until the day that he was distracted by another voice. His faith had rested in the Voice, in the words of the One who made him. On the day described in Genesis 3, however, Adam misplaced his trust. He gathered “new” information from the serpent, who had tricked Eve with his word-play and enticed her to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. The man and the woman heard and responded to the initiations of another and chose to turn from the words of the One who had made them.

The serpent enticed Adam to enter into suspicion about the motives and character of the Lord, our Maker. At once, Adam died a death – his innocence was gone and his sense of trust expired. The security of life in paradise was overthrown.

Adam felt the effects immediately. Shame overwhelmed him as he analyzed his “perfect” body. He and the woman ran into the trees and fashioned bits of clothing from the leaves.

What did they cover up? They tried to hide away the very parts of their being that were designed for their purpose to “be fruitful and multiply.” And so began man’s over-occupation and distortion of what human bodies are made for. Society – families, communities, cities, states, and nations – groan under the weight of mangled misperceptions related to our skin and bones, and to our sexuality, which God designed as very good.

Fear Fell

What fell first? Adam dropped his fear of the Lord. He let the enemy’s accusations about God cloud his relationship with the Lord and, as a result, the man became unresponsive. What entered into Adam now was a perception of unworthiness. He felt that he could not face God and so he hid. The man and the woman had begun to experience the fear that has torment. Their sense of disorder and lost-ness was immediately a great weight upon them.

In the midst of this disaster, however, we discover the thread of hope.

God did not leave Adam and Eve in the jungle of their wrong decision. He came after them. “Adam, where are you?” He sought after His lost children. The Good Shepherd went to fetch the ones who had strayed away. With this initiation, God began the process of redemption; He started His work to restore “fear of the Lord.”

The bit of good news in all of this begins with this sentence from Adam’s lips: “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”

We can mark this as the first confession in our Bibles. This is the monumental moment in the Redemptive purpose: Adam answered when God called to him; he heard and he answered. Response is the key element in our “fear of the Lord.”

Adam responded; it was the beginning of the restoration of man’s true understanding of God.

Faith and Hearing

Fear of the Lord – it is the key to everything we are about.

Our ears do the heavy work in developing this right fear in us. Jesus was once asked about the greatest of the commandments. In the gospel of Mark, He answered this way:  “The first of all the commandments is:  ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these” (Mark 12:28-31).

Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. We listen; we learn. We discover the love of God. This throws our human fears out the door.

Fear of the Lord begins with our understanding of the Person of Jesus Christ. He is the Christ, the Savior of the World, the Son of the Living God. Once we set our minds upon this Rock of Truth, we become settled. Once we grasp this reality, what enters us is a respect for who the Lord is. We honor His character and nature. Our lives then become lives of integrity – honesty, transparency, and faithfulness define who we are because we know who He is.

 

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Be it Unto Me

Mary was a simple teen-ager. Devout and sweet, betrothed to the town carpenter, she was ready to lead an unspectacular life and a gritty existence in Nazareth. She and Joseph would raise a Jewish family. They would celebrate the feasts together with travels to Jerusalem.

Hope for the Messiah lingered in her heart and in the hearts of many of her relatives who lived among the hills of Judea. Zacharias and Elizabeth, Mary’s uncle and aunt, were particularly faithful to the ways taught by Moses. And, yet, they were childless. It was a mystery and a sorrow to them and to all who knew their righteous lives. They had been such good Jews. Like most barren women of her day, Elizabeth wrestled with the emptiness. Her insecurities often got the better of her as she fought back the feeling that she might somehow be under a curse.

And then the angel came. Gabriel shined before Zacharias as he took his turn to make offering at the incense altar. The prayers he prayed over the decades had been heard. Now, those prayers were answered, according to this bright being, the messenger sent from the throne room of the Lord.

A Prayer Answered

Elizabeth’s womb was about to come alive, Zacharias was told. All that he and his wife had hoped for was about to come true. She would bear a son, an Elijah, a man with a call to make the people ready for the King, the Messiah, the Savior.

Zacharias, however, was doubtful. These words were just too good to be true. “How shall this happen?” he said to Gabriel. “We are old people.” Those would be the last words Zacharias would speak for almost a year. His unbelief prompted the Lord to mute him. He would have to keep his doubts to himself.

Please let’s cut Zacharias some slack. He had lived through a troubled and torturous age with his family and nation. Israel’s glory days of David and Solomon were long, long past. How heavy life must have been for a people so favored and so informed. The oracles of God were theirs to read and to study and to share. The people lost sight of that last part. Rather than allowing their nation to grow into a powerful witness for God, they selfishly guarded their privilege and grew prejudiced against other peoples, whom they came to see as inferior.

Age creeps up on us just as it did on Zacharias. He was faithful to the Lord and His commandments, but his sense of wonder and expectation waned. It is all too common among believers. The flame of faith doesn’t always burn brightly. We live in a brutal world. Aches, pains, heartaches, disappointments, disasters, and death do a number on us as they have done on believers in all generations.

Gabriel’s visit jump-started Zacharias’ faith, I am sure – especially since all that the angel said came to pass. Still, he could only smile, chuckle, and nod when his wife miraculously became pregnant a short while after this Temple visitation.

A Virgin Conceives

Mary, remember, was young and engaged. Excitement likely surrounded her preparations for the day when Joseph would take her as his bride. Wedding plans can get wild and contentious at times, but for the most part, they are joyful anticipations of a great celebration.

In the midst of all this, Gabriel appeared before Mary and announced this:  “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” (See Luke 1:29). Stunned, this young bride-to-be struggled to comprehend the meaning of this sentence.

The next words were even more astounding:  “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:30-33).

Mary had been chosen to give birth to the Son of the Most High. God would enter humanity through her.

Like Zacharias, she had her questions: “How will this happen? I am a virgin.” Gabriel explained that her conception would be a work of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit who made Elizabeth’s womb alive, the same Spirit who hovered over the face of the waters at a time when the earth was without form and void. The Spirit would “overshadow” Mary – the substance of His presence would generate the incarnation, the activity of the Word taking on flesh and bone.

“For with God, nothing is impossible,” said Gabriel.

This was enough for Mary. She questioned no more and offered herself as a living sacrifice: “Be it unto me according to your word.” In so many words, this virgin girl said, “l am yours, Lord – do as You will.”

Soon Mary would sing with Elizabeth. Two women,  great with child, rejoiced at the miracle of God with us.

“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

For He has looked on the humble estate of His servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

For He who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is His name.

And His mercy is for those who fear Him
from generation to generation” (Luke 1:46-50).

May these thoughts ring in our hearts as we see the Christmas season approach fast and furiously. Let us think upon the miracle of Mary and her choice to allow God’s purpose to be manifest in her. Hers was a simple and strong faith in the mighty God who does great things.