All this week before Christmas, I am posting the Christmas portion of my book, Encounters With Jesus. Today we take a look at Mary’s encounter with an angel, and the high price she paid to walk with the Lord. Enjoy!
“Yes, I see it all now: I’m the Lord’s maid, ready to serve.
Let it be with me just as you say.”
Luke 1:38
Do as You See Fit
Mary
I have always loved the Lord Almighty. I know you look at a young girl like me and suspect the worst. You see my condition and think you know everything about me. You see an unwed girl great with child, though barely old enough to conceive. I understand, but will you at least listen to my story?
In our home, dinnertime meant story time. Every night my father would tell us the stories of our great God. Stories filled with miracles and wonders. Stories of deliverance and rescue. Since there were four of us girls in the house, he would be sure to tell us of the wonderful Hebrew women. He wanted us to understand that Jehovah loved women and could use them to fulfill His purposes. He told us of Esther and Rahab, of Jael and Deborah, Rebecca and Rachel.
My father loved to talk of our lineage, especially that we could trace our family all the way back to King David. He liked to say we had royal blood. I loved the Sabbath, because we would walk through town to the synagogue as a family—arm in arm, all together. My father would say he was taking his princesses to the house of the King. But those days are gone.
When he learned I was pregnant he cut me off. I was no longer welcome at the dinner table. He would not be seen in the streets with me. He would not have me beneath his roof. He used to say he was sure the Lord had big plans for me, his princess, but now he considers me a disgrace. He says I have dragged both the Lord’s name and his into the filth. He won’t even let me tell him my story, but I hope you will listen.
When I was younger, my father promised me to an older man, Joseph the carpenter. Joseph was a good man and would often join us around the table. The month I first showed the signs of womanhood, they made our engagement official. There was an announcement in the square and a celebration in Joseph’s home. By our custom, the engagement would last a year and then we would marry.
Oh how I looked forward to our wedding! I’d been dreaming of my wedding since my Aunt Rebecca’s beautiful day. Never had I imagined such a celebration: the food, the singing and dancing, the joy, and oh the clothes! Once, my mother showed me the gown she wore on her wedding day, and she told me it would be altered to fit me someday. Not a month passed that I did not sneak into the back room to look at it. Sometimes I pulled it out of the chest where my mother kept it and danced around the room with it gripped tight against me.
Just two months after our engagement, I awoke with a start. There in my bedchamber stood a being. It terrified me. What was a man doing in my chamber? How did he get here? What did he want? Was he here to hurt me? I began to tremble. Then he spoke to me.
“Good morning! You’re beautiful with God’s beauty, beautiful inside and out! God be with you. Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus. He will be great, be called ‘Son of the Highest.’ The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David; He will rule Jacob’s house forever—no end, ever, to his kingdom.”
This confused me further. On the eve of my engagement, my father sat down with me and explained how pregnancy and birth would happen. He did not want me to be afraid of Joseph. I knew my children would be born from a place of intimacy with my husband, born of our love. But Joseph and I had not been intimate. We had never even been alone together; my father had seen to that.
“But how? I’ve never known a man in that way,” I blurted out.
The angel was not put off by my question nor did he seem surprised that I asked it. He sat down on the edge of my bed and said:
“The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Highest hover over you; Therefore, the child you bring to birth will be called Holy, Son of God.
“And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren, and here she is six months pregnant! Nothing, you see, is impossible with God.”
I sat in wonder and remembered all the women before me who had served God and put their lives in His hands. Suddenly, I saw it all so clearly. I was the Lord’s maid, and I was ready and eager to serve Him.
That day, I didn’t know how much it would cost. I didn’t realize how much would be taken from me: my sisters and brothers, my father and mother, my place in the community of faith. These I would offer up as a sacrifice to carry this Holy One.
Within a month my mother knew I was pregnant, and she told my father. He put me out. Joseph, too, was going to disavow our engagement, until he had an encounter of his own. After talking it over, we decided it was best for me to stay with my cousin, Elizabeth.
We made the trip to the home of Zachariah and my Aunt Liza. I called her Aunt Liza because she was so much older than me, far too old to be with child.
I always loved trips out to the country, but it was not the same in the first stages of pregnancy.
“Aunt Liza!” I called out as we arrived in their yard.
Upon hearing my voice, Elizabeth ran to the door. When she saw me, both of us felt our children—our boys—tumble within us. It was as though they were connected. I so needed that confirmation! I had not imagined the whole thing. I know that sounds foolish, since I felt the confirmation inside me every day. But to see Liza, to feel that connection—it was exactly what I needed.
She ran to me as best she could and declared over me:
“You’re so blessed among women, and the babe in your womb, also blessed! And why am I so blessed that the mother of my Lord visits me? The moment the sound of your greeting entered my ears, the babe in my womb skipped like a lamb for sheer joy. Blessed woman, who believed what God said, believed every word would come true!”
Then the Spirit welled up in me and I began to almost sing!
“I’m bursting with God-news; I’m dancing the song of my Savior God. God took one good look at me, and look what happened— I’m the most fortunate woman on earth! What God has done for me will never be forgotten, the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others. His mercy flows in wave after wave on those who are in awe before him. He bared his arm and showed his strength, scattered the bluffing braggarts. He knocked tyrants off their high horses, pulled victims out of the mud. The starving poor sat down to a banquet; the callous rich were left out in the cold. He embraced his chosen child, Israel; he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high. It’s exactly what he promised, beginning with Abraham and right up to now.”
I don’t know what will become of me, but I know the Almighty is with me–in me. The Lord is doing a great thing, a great thing in me, a great thing in Israel, a great thing in this world.
I don’t care what else it costs me. I know the Lord is in this, and I long for the day I deliver this Holy Child.
~~~
To read the original story, see Luke 1:26-56.
If you would like to get your hands on a copy of the entire book check the right side of the page and follow the link to Amazon.
Thanks for coming by,
See you again tomorrow,
Ben