"Look! Jehovah's Slalve Girl!" -Mary's Response to Gabriel

 

Skeptics, including some theologians of Christendom, have a hard time believing that a virgin could give birth.  For all their education, they fail to grasp a simple truth.  As Gabriel put it, "with God no declaration will be an impossibility." (Luke 1:37) Mary accepted Gabriel's words as truth, for she was a young woman of great faithy.  However, that faith was not gulibility.  Like any reasoning person, Mary needed evidence on which to base her faith.  Gabriel was prepared to add to her store of such evidence.  He told her about her elderly relative Elizabeth, long known as a barren woman.  God had miraculously enabled her to conceive! 

Now what would Mary do?  She had her assignment before her and had evidence that God was going to do all that Gabriel had said. We should not assume that this privilege presented no fears, no hardships.  For one thing, she had her engagement  to Joseph to consider.  Would their marriage proceed when he found out  about her pregnancy?  For another thing, the assignment itself may have seemed a daunting responsibility. She was to carry the life of the most precious of all God's creatures-his own beloved Son!  She would have to care for him when he was a helpless infant and protect him in a wicked world.  A weighty responsibility indeed!

The Bible shows that even strong, faithful men have sometimes hesitated to accept challenging assigments from God.  Moses protested that he could not speak fluently enought to act as God's spokesman.  (Exodus 4:10) Jeremiah obejected  that he was "but a boy," too young to take on the task God had assigned him. (Jeremiah 1:6)  And Jonah ran away from his assignment! (Jonah 1:3)   What about Mary?

Next  time: "Look! Jehovah's Slave Girl!" - Conclusion of Mary's Response to Gabriel

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