Ultimate Submission
“…And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her.” (Luke 1:38 ESV)
Mary was a teenager. A teenager who was betrothed to a man. A girl who was about to get her happily ever after. But one night that all changed, and a divine interruption meant that Mary’s plans had to take a back seat. Because now, God was driving. An angel appeared to this teenage girl and told her that she was to bear the Saviour of the world. Her response? Not anger “what about MY plans? MY life, MY wedding?!”, not confusion “but how? What? No! I can’t. Someone HELP me!”, not a lack of competency, “I can’t, why me? I shouldn’t have been picked for this, I’m not good enough”, and not even doubt “HA! Yeah right! How’s that even possible? Come on!” Mary’s response showed humble submission that I can only hope to obtain one day…“Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Mary knew she was God’s first. Before she was her mother and father’s and before she was her fiancée’s, she was God’s. She was happy to be held there. Not when it conveniently fitted into her plans or when she wanted to speak to God, but rather, whenever. And if her God was asking something of her… Even something as big as carrying His Son. Who was she to laugh it off as a silly misunderstanding?
As a Christian, I sometimes hear God too. Sometimes just a word will come to mind, sometimes it’ll be through scripture, perhaps through a brother or a sister, God speaks. He asks things of me. Some things big, others small. But even if I eventually sulkily get around to doing what He asks, I rarely respond as graciously and humbly as Mary did… And the things God asks of me are never as big as the thing He asked of her. I stubbornly cling onto a piece of myself that I’m not fully ready to surrender, or I hand it over, kicking and screaming.
As I end 2012 and enter 2013, I want to consider what God is saying to me, the things He’s asking of me. And I want to respond like Mary did, an obedient daughter of the most high. Comforted by the fact that, no matter what He asks me to carry, He’s carrying me.