Lessons From Mary, Mother of Jesus
I have been thinking about how Mary - the mother of Jesus - was hospitable to what God wanted to do in her life and through her to the entire world.
Let me remind you of something that most leaders eventually discover: God doesn't come down and show up just because we have a dream and are waiting for it to materialize out of thin air. God typically chooses people who have, in some way, given Him something to work with. To jump-start the best version of our lives, we have to act!
Even Mary had to participate with God in order to give birth to a miracle. I see her story as a model for creating God's preferred future. I observe five things in how her will and actions allowed her to connect with God's plan for her life and, more importantly, His world.
First, she was willing to wonder.
When the angel showed up to give Mary the message from God about the unique role she was about to play in the human story, she "was greatly troubled at his words and wondered" (Luke 1:29). I think we often focus on her being "troubled" or frightened. Of course, she was freaked out! She was a young teenager visited by God. But thankfully, she was also full of wonder.
Eugene Peterson wrote: "Wonder is the only adequate launching pad for exploring a spirituality of creation, keeping us open-eyed, expectant, alive to life that is always more than we can account for, that always exceeds our calculations, that is always beyond anything we can make." Mary wondered. She opened herself to possibility.
Second, she was willing to hear.
She listened as the angel told her about God's choice to use her to usher in a new age. She sought clarity, she asked questions, but she listened. "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I'm a virgin?" (Luke 1:34). The angel said, "God is going to do this thing in you. God is going to cause you to conceive. I know that this seems impossible, but nothing is impossible with God'" (vv. 35-37, paraphrased).
Third, she was willing to say yes to God's dream for her.
"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said" (v.38). She activated her will to agree with her God-destiny. I believe that was when she conceived God's son. She had to say yes.
Fourth, Mary was willing to be pregnant with the future.
I think the most difficult time for a miracle is the time of gestation. The time when we know God has put something in us that's really amazing, but we are the only ones who know. We lie awake and alone in the middle of the night and feel something alive, kicking inside us. There often is a unique price to be paid when we are full of the future, but it hasn't happened yet. We can only imagine what Mary must have endured during her nine months of pregnancy. There was a virginal teenager, pregnant with the future, and ready, if necessary, to lose everything. She almost did.
Fifth, she was willing to give birth.
We often talk about the miraculous conception but fail to remember the human element. I'm certain that the birth was laborious, full of travail, as any other birth. It was probably worse. Stables. Animals. Smells. Dirt floor. Rough hay. Far away from home. Mary was just a young woman giving birth. I think that too often we miss the balance between something being divinely conceived and what we must do to bring it to life. You may have received a specific calling from God, but you still have to exercise your will. You have to participate. You have to act. James taught that "faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead" (James 2:17).
I hope and pray you:
enjoy the holiday season with friends and family,
reflect on everything God has given to you and done for you,
remember and appreciate the loving sacrifice of our Heavenly Father and His Son, and
prepare yourself to act on what God has planned for you and those you lead in 2024.