Thoughts for the Day

Luke 1:32-38 “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”  “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.

When Mary asked her question of Gabriel, I wonder how much she’d grasped.  Gabriel’s presence itself must have told her this was something momentous, but was there enough at this point to suggest Jesus would not be conceived in the normal way?  Calling Jesus “Son of the Most High” and referring to him reigning forever certainly pointed to something extraordinary, but not necessarily an extraordinary conception.  Perhaps her question “How will this be?” was not so much about the mechanics as pointing to her lowly status.  Might she equally have phrased it, “You do know Joseph is just a carpenter, don’t you?” And, arguably “I’m still a virgin” was simply a matter of timing!  Then comes the bombshell: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you”.  This is not to be an ordinary pregnancy!  Gabriel’s reference to Elizabeth’s miracle pregnancy may be an illustration that “no word from God will ever fail” (or “Nothing is impossible with God” in other translations), but that’s probably news to Mary too … something to be checked out shortly afterwards.  Nevertheless, at some point in the exchange it must have dawned on Mary that this was not going to be Joseph’s child.  And with that would come an appreciation of how it may well look to him and the risks of how he may react.  I wonder how she felt.  What courage did it take to answer: “I am the Lord’s servant, may your word to me be fulfilled”?