The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.” … Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her. [Luke 1:35,38 (NLT)]
When I was young, back in the 1950s, sex education pretty much consisted of some talk about bees pollinating flowers. Married couples on television didn’t sleep in the same bed and husbands always seemed completely surprised when wives announced a baby was arriving. As a little girl, I naively thought marriage (not intercourse) was what produced babies and that God put babies in a woman’s tummy once she was married.
Having been told that “virgin” simply meant unmarried, I understood that God deliberately gave Jesus to Mary before she was married. Unfortunately, I’d also heard whispers of other unwed mothers—girls who got in the “family way” without benefit of a husband. I knew by the whispers that, except for Mary, being an unwed mother was a bad thing. Although God meant to give Jesus to Mary, I naively thought God occasionally made mistakes when He gave babies to other unmarried girls. As a result of my muddled childlike thinking, I would pray and remind God that I wasn’t married so He shouldn’t give me a baby. Fortunately, by the time I was an adolescent, my understanding both of reproduction and theology had vastly improved.
What brought this to mind was a recent rereading of Luke 1. What I didn’t understand as a child (but do now) is that Mary had a choice in the matter. Granted, she was miraculously impregnated by the Holy Spirit but she could have refused her holy assignment. Instead, she obediently accepted it. She may have been young but not so young that she didn’t know life was going to be much harder by her choice. How would she explain such a miraculous happening to her family and Joseph? Who would believe such a fantastic story? She could end up disgraced and rejected by both fiancé and family. Yet, this young humble girl, who really had no idea of the magnitude of what was happening, willingly obeyed the Lord.
If an angel appeared at my doorstep and offered me an assignment, I wonder how willing I would be to accept his task without knowing the who, how, what, why and where of the plan. Mary believed and obeyed; would I do the same? Would you?
In preparation for my mother-in-law’s 100th birthday, I’ve been creating a timeline. After perusing a century’s worth of history, I juxtaposed high points in her life with what was happening in the world around her. During her life-time, my mother-in-law saw the advent of everything from three-colored traffic lights and the Monopoly game to E-Z-Passes and X-Boxes, from pop-up toasters and World Book encyclopedias to microwave ovens and Google, from rotary dial phones and the first airmail to iPhones and email, from the first transatlantic flight and Admiral Byrd’s South Pole expedition to space shuttles, lunar landings and Mars’ probes.
Patience may be one of the fruits of the Spirit but there appears to be a shortage of it in my life’s orchard. Paul tells us that hardships teach us patience and patience develops strength of character but I imagine most of us are impatient to see all of that character building come to an end. Moses must have grown impatient leading the Israelites all those years, yet consider the patience God had during those same forty years as He dealt with His children’s disobedience, ingratitude and complaints. In fact, consider how patient God has been with mankind since the beginning of time. We err and stray, forget and disobey, ignore, defy and even deny Him, yet He still hasn’t given up on us. Mercifully, we have a God who loves us and, as Paul tells us, love is patient and kind. Remembering that the measure we use to give will be used to measure what we receive, we must be patient with others if we want God to be patient with us.
As the weather up north cools, our snowbird neighbors have begun returning to their southwest Florida homes. One neighbor recently arrived from Portland, Oregon, a city that ranks third in a list of cities with the most depressing winters. Their weather forecast alternates between cloudy with rain showers to partly cloudy with a 60% chance of rain and that’s not likely to improve! Their early November temperatures will range from highs in the mid-60s to lows in the mid-40s with a UV index that never gets above a 2. On the other hand, our ten-day forecast fluctuates between sunny and mostly sunny with no more than a 10% chance of rain. Temperatures will rise to the mid-80s during the day and fall to the mid-60s at night; the UV index is 6 or 7. In short, Portland is damp, gray and dreary and we’re dry, warm and sunny (and should wear sunblock). On my neighbor’s first day back in our tropical paradise, while relaxing on her lanai with a book, she happened to fall asleep. Upon waking, hearing the mockingbird’s happy song and feeling the warm gentle breeze on her face, she had a moment of confusion and forgot where she was. Feeling incredibly peaceful, relaxed and refreshed, for a moment she actually thought she’d died and gone to heaven!
Printed on the tee-shirt were Paul’s words from Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things.” While the shirt, part of a new line of Christian workout wear, would be a great conversation starter at the gym, the message is somewhat misleading. I could wear that shirt and say those words but, try as I might, I’d still be unable to bench press 450 pounds! That, however, is not why the message is misleading. It’s because the rest and most important part of Paul’s words—“through Christ who strengthens me”—are missing. Paul’s words are not words of self-sufficiency but of God’s all-sufficiency. The apostle was not boasting of himself and his strength but rather of God’s strength and power that enable us to do His work.
Saturday morning, my husband and I arrived at a nearby park for our morning walk. Banners and tables were being set up for a fundraising walk. Giving it no thought, we continued onto the trail where we saw signs indicating the event was for suicide prevention. As we returned to the community center, we heard the mournful sound of bagpipes and found the participants gathering, many of whom were wearing shirts in memory of loved ones they’d lost to suicide.
