“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon 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 barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God.” “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.” Then the angel left her. Luke 1:34-38
Heavenly Father, you gave Mary a calling no one else will ever share—to be the mother of God the Son. And yet, I do have a lot in common with her. When I consider the enormity of the promises you’ve made accompanying the birth of Jesus, I too say and pray with incredulity, “How will this be?” And I hear you answer back in the gospel, “Nothing is impossible with God.”
There’s nothing you’ve promised, with respect to Jesus, that won’t come to pass. This includes the transformation of this broken world into the new heaven and new earth. It includes the redeeming of a Bride for Jesus from every single nation, tribe, people and language. But it also includes your plans for each of our lives. Just as surely as you placed the life of Jesus in Mary, you’ve done the same for me. Though in an entirely different way than Mary, I too am pregnant with glory. (Romans 8:18-27) Christ is being formed in every one of your children, including me. (Galatians 4:19)
One Day I’ll fully love with the kindness and compassion of Jesus… I’ll only think and see with the wisdom and eyes of heaven… I’ll completely embrace the will of God as my favorite bread and incomparable delight.
I’ll never be selfish, petty, or defensive again… I’ll never get my feelings hurt, insist on being right, or demand more… I’ll think of others more highly and more often than myself… I won’t keep a record of anybody’s wrongs… I’ll never remember and rehearse the ways others have failed me, and the ways I’ve failed them… I’ll be free, so very free and whole.
To all of these are promises I find myself saying, “How will this be, since I’m still so very much not like Jesus?” And you answer back, you answer back so graciously, “Things impossible with man are possible with God.” And I say and pray… “May it be as you have promised in the gospel, holy and faithful Father. I am yours and I am your servant.”
So very Amen, I pray, in Jesus’ immeasurably generous name.