As we begin the Christmas season, celebrating the birth of Christ into our world, I thought I'd share what it might have been like for Mary to encounter an angel with an incredible promise.
Perhaps, if Mary could talk to us about Christmas, she would begin something like this:
(Adapted from Wrestling with Wonder)
Christmas changes everything. HE changes everything. He changed me, Mary. He changed this ordinary girl, with her ordinary life, in an ordinary village tucked into the back corners of Galilee. But he changed all that.
Here’s how it started:
It was early in the morning, and my mother had gone to gather gossip near Nazareth’s well. I stood by the grinding stone, my fingers sunk deep in the warm dough of the day's bread. A sound rustled behind me. I turned. And saw him.
A man, but not a man. Like nothing I have ever seen before. Tall and strong. Shining. Splendid. Extraordinary.
Terrifying.
In the silvery silence, he approached me. Looked at me. Gently, fiercely, his gaze like fire in my soul. And he spoke.
“Rejoice!” A common word. An uncommon greeting. “Rejoice, favored one, the Lord is with you.”
What kind of greeting was this?
He said it again. “Do not be afraid. You have found favor with God.”
Then, he whispered a single word: “Behold ...” It is the word for see. But what he wanted me to see was impossible.
He said, “Behold, you will conceive in the womb and will bear a son and you will call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David. And he will rule over the house of Jacob into the ages and of his kingdom there will be no end!”
What?! I grasped at the first impossibility. “How will this be? I’m a virgin.”
And then came the wildest part of all. He didn’t speak of men or of marriage. He spoke of miracles. He told me the Holy Spirit himself would come upon me and God’s power would overshadow me. And this child, this tiny little baby boy would be called holy, the very Son of God.
An incredible plan. An astounding promise. But more than a promise. A call. A question. Would I leave all my plans, all my hopes, behind me? Would I lay aside my ordinary life to embrace this vision of something new, something impossible, beyond anything I ever imagined?
His next words danced through me: “Nothing is impossible with God.”
Nothing.
“No word from God will ever fail."
Did I dare believe it? Did I dare say yes? I knew what it meant. Nothing would be the same again. No one would understand. Could I bear that kind of shame? Could I bear their disbelief? And more, could I bear that kind of beauty? Could I bear the wonder?
And in that ordinary moment, on an ordinary day, in an ordinary life, the heavens waited, breathless.
“I am the Lord’s servant.” I exhaled the words. “May it be done to me according to what you’ve said.”
My angel smiled.
I trembled.
Then, he was gone.
And all I could think of was the babe, all I could hear was the whispered cry of my soul: Messiah, Savior, Son, be born in me . . .
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