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As we proceed through Advent, I am challenged by the way God makes his presence known to ordinary people, meeting with them in astonishing encounters that turn their lives around. Like when the angel Gabriel meets with Mary:
During the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, the angel Gabriel was sent from God’s presence to an unmarried girl named Mary, living in Nazareth a village in Galilee. She was engaged to a man named Joseph, a true descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, ‘Rejoice, beloved young woman, for the Lord is with you and you are anointed with great favour.’ (Luke 1:26-28 The Passion Translation)
Mary was just an ordinary young girl, a teenager with all her life before her. She loved God in her own simple way and was following the path expected in her village culture. She was engaged to Joseph, and her daily life would have been full of the ordinary chores of helping keep her house clean, drawing water from the well, helping prepare meals. Her dreams would have centred around her marriage to come, the home life they would build together and the family they would create...
But God broke into her simple daily chores and dreams through his awesome angel Gabriel bringing a message that would change her life forever. Sometimes when I’ve attended a powerful Christian conference I’ve prayed fervently along with the hundreds of other participants, that the Lord will meet with me and fill me with his power. In those moments I long for that with all my heart, but do I really know what I am asking for? And do I expect that at any moment, like when I am cleaning the house or cooking a meal, the Lord will suddenly appear to me and tell me his favour is upon me for some powerful work?
The Bible shows that God is intimately acquainted with all my ways, he knows my thoughts and what I am going to say before I even say it. (Psalm 139)
This means he is always with me anyway, full of the love that knows me intimately just as he was always with Mary, but in a blink of an eye, he can pull back the veil so I can see and experience his glory. I may express my longing for him in a powerful conference, but he may choose to answer my prayer in the midst of my every day. How will I respond if he does?
The angel’s first words to Mary were that she was highly favoured. God always loves to build us up and speak truth over us but there is no doubt that it can be scary to meet with the Lord face to face. Yet despite being ‘deeply troubled,’ Mary was ready to respond. She knew there would be a great cost – her family and community would judge her, maybe even stone her. She could lose her fiancé Joseph and the simple life path she’d dreamed of would be forever changed…But she said yes. How beautiful and how challenging!
Will I allow myself to be like Mary? To not just pray fervently at a big event but in ordinary days, be ready to say ‘yes Lord?’ I long to be that person who will hold lightly to my own plans and dreams just in case God breaks in with something bigger. What I can be sure of for us all, is that although God’s call can be costly and life changing, it is also exhilarating and will lead us ever deeper into the knowing of our belovedness in him. I know I want that. Do you?
Prayer: Thankyou Lord that your plans for me are perfect. Please let me, like Mary, always be ready to say, ‘yes Lord, I am willing.’ Amen.
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