Countdown to Christmas: Day Twenty

I Ponder Mary.

I wonder if Mary daydreamed. I daydreamed about my future with my soon to be husband. Did she dream about her and Joseph's life together. Did she make plans? Did she dream about the day she would announce to him the good news of their first born? Did she see herself settling down in a house next to her husbands family and yet still close to her own family? Did she long to be held in His arms? Was she daydreaming as she was going through her normal routine of daily tasks?

Mary stands out among all women for she was chosen to birth and mother the Son of God, the LORD's Christ, the Messiah. I do not belittle her position in our rich spiritual history. She was truly blessed among all women. But I would like for you to take another look, see with fresh eyes at Mary's account and see if God isn't trying to preach the gospel even through Mary and the physical birth of Christ. Read again Luke 1:26-38.

I am not an angel but I am a servant of the Most High God and I would like to greet each one of you with the same very true greeting; 'Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!" Mary thought the greeting was strange. She probably did exactly what you would have done; "Must be talking to someone else, for I am not blessed among women...why so and so is much smarter, and so and so is much prettier and so and so is...Nor am I favored by God for so is so is favored but not me. If you know Jesus Christ then receive the greeting from God as your personal greeting. Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women or men!

How can this be? That is exactly what Mary asked. She was still thinking in the earthly and the physical as we so often do. But God operates in the spiritual and eternal. Look again at these words, "...The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God.' Don't you see that is exactly what happens to each of us when we by faith believe Jesus came for us an we accept His free gift of grace. He wants to be born in each of us. The Holy Spirit wants to overshadow each of us that it is no longer us that is seen and heard but Jesus, the Son of God.

Oh, it seems impossible that I could bear the character of Christ instead of the natural me. Yet again we are reminded that "For with God nothing will be impossible."

I want to respond to God's love and favor the same way Mary did..."Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word."