At the Nativity - Mary

You are going to be the mother of a Son. And you will call Him Jesus. He will be great and will be known as the Son of the Most High...His reign shall never end...For no promise of God can fail to be fulfilled.

In Luke 1, we can find the interaction between the angel and Mary. The angel approaches Mary and tells her of the great news. She is favored by God and she will become pregnant and carry the Son of the Most High to life. Mary is troubled, as any woman of the flesh would rightly be. She begins to explain why she is “unequipped”- I am a virgin (not to mention she was probably around 14 and becoming pregnant with the Messiah was scary enough). The angel told her “The Holy Spirit will come on you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you.” Mary simply responds with “I am the Lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.”

Mary could see the mission. She stepped into her purpose even when society was against her and she was afraid. God equipped her body to carry and He blessed her with the Holy Spirit. Even in her doubt and fear, she was able to respond to the angel with a mission mindset: “I am the Lord’s servant. May your words be fulfilled.”

Mary was humble in her actions and acceptance of the role God was asking her to step into. She understood the mission - to bring the Messiah into the world. Filled with the Holy Spirit, her fear and doubts were no longer in control because the power of the Most High overshadowed her. She did not walk alone.

Mary began the journey that we have all been called to take. We have been called to carry the Word to life. As women, we have been uniquely designed to carry our talents, our passions, our burdens and life in a way no other creation can. God designed women’s bodies to bear life, knowing that this was how the promise of the Word would be realized.

Some things are more fun to carry than others. Some are temporary and easy and some are nine months of sacrificing your body, eating for two and not getting to sleep when you want to. But our omniscient Lord has already equipped us to carry.

Like Mary, our mission is to bring the Messiah to the world. That is what the Lord ultimately asks us all to carry. Light to the darkness. As we remember He is the Most High, our soul begins to be humbled to His purpose. And, because of Jesus, we do not walk alone. The same power that carried the Word to life and raised Him from the dead lives in us.

Mary said yes. She was humbled, saw the mission and was filled with the Holy Spirit, all of which equipped her to say yes to what the Lord was asking her to carry. May our response be the same.