A pious teenage girl reports that she has been visited by an angel. Then it becomes apparent that she is pregnant.
Can you imagine the headlines?
I’m so glad the birth of Jesus happened when it happened.
If it happened today – would there be calls for her to have an abortion? Was Mary technically a child, would this action be seen as rape?
But, as it was, and the narrative we have must have come from Mary herself, this wasn’t abuse. Even though just informing a teenage girl of one’s plans would have been counter cultural, let alone asking permission as God did through His messenger. This was the great God assuring Mary first, telling her not to be afraid before explaining that she had been chosen to carry His Son. Mary could only imagine what gossip she would be the butt of, how was she going to break this news to her parents? to Joseph? to her rabbi?
But she appears not to hesitate with her response.
It makes me cringe with embarrassment. How many times, just this last year, has God asked me to do the smallest things for Him – pray in the prayer meeting, speak to a stranger, give to a good cause – and I have hesitated or said no straightaway. Yet here is a young girl eager to do God’s will in fact feeling ‘highly favoured’ when the consequences of saying yes would be life changing.
Lord, help me to be spontaneous and quick to say yes to You, confident that You know what’s best. Amen