“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
Dear heavenly Father, you gave Mary a calling no one else will ever share—to be the mother of God the Son. And yet we 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 too say and pray, “How will this be?” And I hear you answer back in the gospel, “Nothing is impossible with God.”
Everything you’ve promised will come to pass, for you are the consummate promise keeper. This includes the transformation of this broken world into the new heaven and new earth, and the redeeming of a bride for Jesus from every single nation, tribe, people, and language. But it also includes your plans for our lives. Just as surely as you placed the life of Jesus in Mary, you have done the same for us. Though in an entirely different way than Mary, we too are pregnant with glory (Rom. 8:18-27).
One Day I will fully love with the kindness and compassion of Jesus. I will think and see only with the wisdom and eyes of heaven. I will completely embrace the will of God as my favorite bread and utter delight.
One Day I will never be selfish, petty, or defensive again. I will never get my feelings hurt, insist on being right, or demand more. I will 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 will be free, so very free and 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’ tender and triumphant name.
