Day 2: Willingness (Luke 1:26–38)
Today’s Passage: Luke 1:26–38
Imagine you are minding your own business, and an angel appears and asks you to do something that is both wild and does not quite fit your idea of how things work.
That is the situation Mary is presented with.
For Luke, he has unearthed the angel Gabriel’s activities. The involvement of the heavenly angelic host should not surprise us. God is at work. His workers include mortal and immortal agents.
Mary, no doubt, is not thinking of all the details that will entertain biblical scholars long after her term. No, Mary is face-to-face with an angel—an angel who is again quoting Malachi.
She is given a choice. Trust and obey—or not.
The start of Jesus’ life is marked by a mother who submits to the will of God—and his life will end with, “Not my will, but yours be done.”
Here I am led to return to the idea of “certainty.” In our world today, people, as they read about angels, might put this literary work now into the category of fantasy. And if fantasy, then certainly we should not “trust and obey” the God that Luke is bringing to us.
Are you in such a situation?
If so, linger a while longer. Meet Jesus.
Skepticism is not bad. In fact, I myself am wired to require data. It simply means you will need to work a bit harder to hear the story. It means you will be challenged to ask yourself if our world is only physical. If you answer the world is only physical, are you certain?
Luke will be drawing us into a world of truth that you may not have thought much about. In doing so, I believe you will hear truth, and witness love.