Mary’s Response By Lisa Borden

Published: December 18th, 2007

This morning I was reading about that famous incident when the angel Gabriel shows up to a very young Mary and announces that she's going to have a baby (who is going to be the son of The Most High and who will save the world, by the way.) Gabrielle has big, amazing, lofty, heavenly things to say about the baby:

• He's going to be the Most High's son.  
• He's going to be given (by God) the throne of his ancestor, David
• He's going to reign over the House of Jacob FOREVER, (as in, his kingdom will never end.)

That's a big job description for a baby! 

What I loved, as I read this morning, was Mary's response.
First of all, when the angel greets her as one who is "highly favored" by God, Mary is troubled.  I love this humility. The girl is thinking, "Me? Not likely. I KNOW me."  

But next, there is a very practical response.  "How will this be," she asks.  "I'm a virgin."

God's messenger has just given her a hugely heavenly message.  It is weighted with historic significance and supernatural ramifications.  This is BIG.

But Mary has this one plain and down to earth question:  "How am I going to get pregnant?"

Sometimes I feel unspiritual because, in the midst of great heavenly leadings, I have dull, practical, party-pooper kinds of questions.  Things like, "How would we do that with our limited number of people on this team?"  Or, "When would that really fit into our schedule?"  I don't mean to rain on any supernatural idea.  I just want to know how we walk it out.  I liked Mary's question because it showed me that it's ok to be a wondering girl like me.  And the angel didn't rebuke her for wondering, he just explained.  

Lastly, we have to recognize that while this news was fantastic for the Children of Israel, (and for all of mankind!) it was hardly good news for Mary’s immediate future.  As my friend, Jenelle, pointed out in her fine post “There’s Something About Mary,” this announcement was “plain awful news for Mary in the short-term.”  She goes on to say that it’s as if the angel appeared and said,

“Surprise!  In a few weeks, your whole village will presume you’re a whore!  And your fiancé will likely not marry you, either!”

So Mary receives what is at once awesome, holy, supernatural, exciting and devastating news.

And yet she doesn’t balk.  She asks her one practical question and then turns herself entirely into the Lord’s hands.  “Let it be done to me according to what you have said,” she concludes.  However much sense the message did or did not make to her, Mary believed that God could be trusted.

I am sometimes good at trusting the Lord, and sometimes not.  Faced with the bizarre circumstances coming her way, I think I may have leaned toward the NOT if I were Mary.  

Today, as I walk the paths I find myself on, I am encouraged by a young girl from long ago and far away.

Lisa Borden (along with her husband Byron) has spent the last twenty two years nurturing new Christians first among the Maasai in Kenya's wilderness, then among urban tribes of young people in Europe.  They are now living in Tanzania to continue living out the prayer, justice and mission calling on their lives.  While balancing the roles of wife, mother,  and pastor / teacher / missionary, Lisa has found that singing in the shower and dancing in the kitchen keeps her sane.  To dialogue with Lisa and learn more from her, visit her blog.  Lisa and Byron have also set up a website to chronicle the stories of hope from Africa they are involved in.

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