The Eighth Day of Christmas
Mary was a young woman who was in the waiting stage between betrothal and the actual wedding celebration. She would have had all the anticipation, expectation and dreams of any one of us looking forward to that “special” day.
Right in the midst of the waiting Mary had an unexpected visitor – an angel! His first words to Mary were: “Greetings, you who are highly favoured? The Lord is with you.” This greatly troubled her, as it would you! That’s like picking up the phone and someone saying you have been chosen for a prize or your name has been picked for jury duty. But favour sounds good - promising! Who wouldn’t want to be favoured by God?
The angel goes on to inform her what the favour of God will mean to her. She would be the mother of a son, not just any son, but the Son of the Most High. Mary’s question at this time is a very human question. I remember getting prophetic words and thinking this very thing. “How can this be?” It is a human response to a super natural God. We think on one plane - the natural one. The angel, Gabriel, makes this statement: “Nothing is impossible with God!”
What a great statement! How easy it is for us to forget that God is in control of ALL THINGS. Our tendency is to look at things with our natural eye and say it can’t happen. How easy it is for us to loose perspective. I love flying; jet travel makes the globe so accessible. But at one time the thought of flying was beyond man’s thinking – now it is normal.
One thing flying does is change perspective. Up in the sky looking down on the world things below look so small. For God to intervene in our lives is a small thing for him. What seems like a mountain is nothing from His heavenly perspective. He is interested in all the details of our lives and nothing is impossible for Him to do.
The question is: do we believe it? Do we believe that He will use us to change the world? Do we believe that He is watching over His word to perform it? Isaiah 55 says: Do we believe that there is really nothing - that is no thing, God cannot do? Have we put Him in a box and confined Him to our thinking?
The challenge is this. If Gabriel came to you or if God asked you to do something would your mind stay “greatly troubled”, or would you take hold of the Spirit of God and allow Him to work His work in you? You never know how the unexpected will come into the midst of your normal day.
