So let us consider the “word” that was given to Mary and Joseph
First, an angel came to Mary declaring that God
wanted to bless her – she was going to become pregnant by the power of the Holy
Spirit
For a young girl who was engaged to be married
this does not sound like a blessing!!
Even in the early 20th century in
Ireland, and maybe other places, to be pregnant outside of marriage was
considered to be a greater sin than murder!! The girl would be sent away to a
mother and baby home until the baby was delivered at which point the baby would
be taken away from her and given to a married couple who wanted it!! How much more
judgmental would the people have been in the time of Mary and Joseph?
And yet, the angel told Mary that this was God’s
blessing to her!
How would she respond?
Luke 1:38 records her response as being –
I am the Lord’s servant, I am willing to accept
whatever He wants!
What a submissive heart, what a step of faith.
Her expectation would be that Joseph would break
the engagement because of what seemed like infidelity.
She would be seen in the community in the years
ahead as the mother of an illegitimate child.
Her family would want to disown her because of the disgrace she brought upon them – and yet something of God had stirred within her and she had said -
I am the Lord’s servant, I am willing to accept
whatever He wants!
What an example and what a challenge to each of
us.
Have we been faced with a challenge as hard as
that?
If we did – how would we respond? How did we
respond?
Comments