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, “How will this be?” I wonder how much she’d grasped.  It was clearly 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 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 “Nothing is impossible with God” (another translation), but that’s almost certainly 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 realisation would come an awareness of her vulnerability.  How would he, and others, react?  But instead of spiralling into some dangerous “What if?” thinking, she answered: “I am the Lord’s servant, may your word to me be fulfilled”.  That took some courage!