“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. Luke 1:34-38
Heavenly Father, you gave Mary a calling no one else will ever share—to be the mother of God the Son. And yet, as your child, I do have a lot in common with her. When I consider the enormity of the promises you’ve made accompanying the birth of Jesus, I respond with my own incredulity and disbelief, “How will this be?” To which you answer back in the gospel, “Nothing is impossible with God.”
Every promise you’ve made about Jesus and his work will come to pass. Nothing will be left on the table or left undone. Jesus will have a pan-national trans-generational Bride to love and cherish forever. Jesus will finish making all things new—transforming this broken beloved world into the new heaven and new earth. But it also means that every promise and plan you’ve made for our lives will also be fulfilled. Just as surely as you placed the life of Jesus in Mary, you have done the same for me. Though in an entirely different way than Mary, I too am pregnant with glory (Rom. 8:18-27).
One day I’ll be as loving and compassionate as Jesus (astonishing as the thought is). I will never sin again—in word, through and deed. Nothing about me will remain broken, or marked and marred by sin. I’ll never doubt your love or question your ways again. Nothing and no one will ever again compete for my heart’s affections. I will finally worship You above all and all the time.
I’ll reason with the wisdom of heaven and see everything from the perspective of eternity. The will of God will my favorite bread and passionate delight. I’ll never be selfish, petty, or defensive again, never. Every one of my relationship will be perfect—reflecting life within the Trinity. I’ll never get my feelings hurt, insist on being right, or demand more of anything. I’ll think of others more highly, and more often, than myself. I won’t keep a record of anybody’s wrongs—no longer remembering and rehearsing the ways others have failed me, and the ways I’ve failed them. I’ll be free, so very free and completely whole.
To all of these promises I find myself saying, “How will this be, since I’m still so very much not like Jesus?” And you answer back so graciously, “Things impossible with man are possible with God.” And I say and pray, “May it be as you have promised in the gospel, holy and faithful Father. I am yours, and your servant.” So very Amen I pray, in Jesus’ glorious and grace-filled name.
