With God Nothing is Impossible – Advent Devotional

"In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”  (Luke 1:26-28)

Daily Scripture Reading: Luke 1:26-38

  Yesterday, we looked at Gabriel’s appearance to Zechariah in the gospel of Luke. Luke also presents the account of Gabriel’s appearance to Mary.

  In Luke, Gabriel says to Mary, "You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

  And if the angel's news for Zechariah seemed astounding, it was trivial compared to the announcement Gabriel was about to reveal to Mary. Let's consider her situation when confronted with the news that she would bear God's Son through the virgin birth. What might this mean to her?

  Mary was probably about 16, perhaps even younger. She becomes pregnant. Given the social moral view of her time, she could have fully expected that she would be disgraced. Her fiancee, Joseph might very well have abandon her, which would have been an expected social response to the situation. Being a single mother would likely mean she would never marry. A young, single woman making a claiming that God had made her pregnant would have encountered trouble. Jewish society in the first century took a real hard line on "blasphemy," as later accounts of Jesus' ministry and death make clear.

  We can try to imagine ourselves in Mary's shoes, but I don't expect we can really grasp the magnitude of her situation. Mary knew the problems were real and overwhelming. As Mary expresses her doubts to the angel Gabriel about the reality of his announcement, he explains and concludes his statement with the phrase, “For nothing will be impossible with God.” In response, rather than focusing on the size of her problems, she chose to trust in the size of her God.

  Mary's response to the angel Gabriel's message is straightforward: "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word" (Luke 1:38). In these words, Mary discovered and defined her life forever by giving herself fully to God's purposes. Mary offered up herself, all of her, to God's mysterious will and way.

  God did provide for Mary in what God knew would be a difficult time in her young life. God gave Mary the strength and companionship of her relative Elizabeth who was awaiting the birth of her own son by Zechariah. God gave her the strength of her future husband, Joseph who went against normal social convention and believed in what God could do after his own angelic visit recorded in Matthew 1:20.

  What we do have in these glimpses of Mary are some important aspects of what it means to be a disciple of Christ: living with vulnerability, reflecting with care on the advent of Jesus Christ, and witnessing God’s actions in the world. In that sense, Mary remains a model for discipleship. Neither our choices nor our circumstances make us. God does, when we give ourselves to God’s will and purposes.

  God touches our lives often, in ways we almost never expect. We can relate to Zechariah's confusion, but we must aspire to Mary's faith. We need to try, as best we can, to be the Lord's servants, entrusting ourselves to His care as we walk through each new day in God’s world. As it was with Mary and is now with us, do not be afraid, for we have found favor with God through the coming of His son, Jesus Christ.