Luke 1.38
Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me
according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her.
What were you doing at 13 years old? I was in the 9th grade
at Greer High School, a late bloomer, giggly, energetic. I was lead angel
in the Christmas pageant at Grace United Methodist Church singing a solo about
the star in the east while wearing a white choir robe and balancing atop a step
ladder.
Remembering those days, and knowing our 9th grade Variations
girls as I do, I’m amazed at 13 year old Mary’s response when Gabriel flew in
and dropped the, “You’re going to give birth to the son of God!” bomb on her
that day. Was Mary’s knee-jerk response really so calm and serene? Or is
the writer of Luke using a little poetic license to omit the part where Mary
screams and runs out of the room, or perhaps laughs uncontrollably, saying, “You’re
kidding me, right!?” Or was she so preoccupied with a cute boy in her village
that she never heard a word he said? These sorts of questions could go on
and on I suppose, but I wonder if we can consider the possibility that Mary’s
young heart could have been just peaceful and open enough to receive Gabriel’s
words freely, recognizing them as God’s own? Could it be that she was
blessed with just enough naivety and blind faith to say simply, “Here I am, the
servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word?” No panic, no
shock, just blind faith, stepping off the threshold with no idea where her foot
would land, yet moving forward into darkness one step at a time, recognizing
only the voice of the one who called her. Prayer:
God grant me to be silent before you, that I may hear you.
At rest in you that you might work in me.
Open to you, that you may enter.
Empty before you, that you may fill me.
Let me be still and know that you are my God. (Anonymous)
