Surprise! Your Life will Change Forever!

 A Series on Women in the Bible
 (Use the link below to read the verses.)
Luke 1:26-38

[God worked in and through the lives of countless women in the Bible. These women played significant, if not critical roles in the Lord’s plan of Redemption. In this series, I will do my best to represent the faithfulness of some of these God fearing women.]

  

Surprise! Everybody likes a surprise, right?! As least a good surprise. Several years ago, I got the surprise of my life at Christmas. For weeks, my wife had been asking me what I wanted for Christmas. I kept joking, “Either a Mazda Miata or a pickup truck”. I got the pickup truck. It was totally unexpected; a complete surprise.

 

Mary got the surprise of her life too; only nine months before Christmas. Being a young, poor Jewish girl, her life was laid out before her. She was engaged to be married. They would raise a good Jewish family. She would play the same role as all the other young Jewish girls that she knew until… surprise!

 

This was a surprise to pass all surprises; a reveal party to pass all reveal parties. Not only did the angel reveal that Mary would be pregnant, but also that she would have a boy; and, that she was to name him Jesus; and, that he would be given the eternal throne of David; and, that he would be the Son of God.

 

How did she respond to all of this? At first she was greatly troubled. Then she wondered out loud just how this was to happen since she was still a virgin. Finally, unlike her relative Zechariah, she believed.

 

³⁸ Mary said, “I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to do whatever he wants. May everything you said come true.” TLB

 

Generally, people don’t respond well to change. I’m an insurance agent and spend eight hours a day in front of a monitor quoting policies from multiple companies. Every one of them changes their web site from time to time; normally just when I’m getting used to it. Change… I don’t like it.

 

Mary was facing a monumental change in her life. And yet, she responded with grace, poise and faith. Pretty good for a fourteen year old. Definitely better than I would have done; probably better than most of us would have.

 

How do you respond to a surprise; to change; to the unexpected happenings of life? Are you looking to see how the Lord is at work? Are you listening for him to speak? Are you asking what would he have you do?

 

Most likely, the changes in your life are not announced by an angel. But the Lord speaks to us in so many ways that we need to be constantly listening for him. If we do, he will reveal himself to us; he will reveal his will to us. And best of all, he promises to be with us through it all; just like he was with Mary.