This month, our Senior Minister, Mark Booker, asked the staff and elders to help write a devotional for the Advent season, and I was glad to be assigned this passage from Luke. In a time of darkness years ago, Mary’s words gave me great comfort because they reminded me who I was, why I was here, and my desire for God’s will, even as it involved both suffering and joy. I hope they can be encouraging for you as well.

Luke 1:26-38

It is not in the normal course of experience that an angel appears, and predicts something that had never happened before: a virgin birth. In our re-telling of the events of Christmas, this is a magical, wonderful part of the story. But how hard it must have been for Mary! She was but a young girl who would need to explain her pregnancy to both her family and to Joseph, her pledged husband, with a supernatural story of an angel’s visit. We know from the book of Matthew that indeed, Joseph, upon hearing of Mary’s pregnancy, intended to divorce her, and did not only after heavenly intervention.

Mary may have felt blessed to ‘have found favor with God,’ but her life would no longer be a quiet or normal one. Her life would ultimately be filled with remarkable love, but also the excruciating pain of loss. Her reply to the angel Gabriel is one that points us to Christ in this time of Advent. Mary does not respond with fear or anxiety, suspicion or demands. Rather, she acknowledges who she is: “I am the Lord’s servant.” It is an act of humble submission, one of trusting faith.

There are times that our Lord asks things of us. If we are in a place of unforgiveness, his word tells us to forgive. If we have succumbed to pride, we are called to repentance and a humbled spirit. If we have lost ourselves to the cares of daily life, we are called back to obedience and hopeful expectation. We are called to remember our Lord. And in those moments, whether it be to a joyful place or to a place of suffering for Jesus’ sake, let our response to the calling be as Mary’s—“May your word to me be fulfilled.”