Day 20
Thursday, December 24th, 2020

Read Luke 1:26-38

As Mary receives a supernatural visitation that will forever alter the course of her life, she asks shockingly few questions. Many options flood to mind; what about Joseph? Will he know this, or will I be left on my own? Why me? What if this is all just a ruse? This feels like a ruse. Are angels even real? How could my child reign, I come from no significant line!

These, and many more, are questions that may spring to mind when analyzing Mary’s predicament. Instead, she asks one very obvious and important biological question; essentially, this isn’t how reproduction works, angel. How can this happen? And with an answer that must have seemed both thrilling and frightening, Mary asks no more. Life altered forever, public shame on the horizon, but no more questions asked.

I am the Lord’s servant; may Your word to me be fulfilled. 

Your will be done, O Lord. Radical submission to the will and way of God even as it brings great pain and hardship. Here we see Mary already speaking the language of her coming son, Jesus; language He speaks as He fulfills the ultimate purpose for Christmas.

Read Matthew 26:36-45 

As Jesus readies for the betrayal, arrest, torture and crucifixion that lie ahead, He similarly asks one solitary question. “If it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” But like His mother, in the face of pain, humiliation and the end of life as He knows it, He utters that terrifyingly significant phrase: may Your will be done. 

I am the Lord’s servant; may Your word to be me fulfilled.

This is the language of the Way of Jesus. This is the language of Christmas, the language of Easter, and this is the language of each and every day we follow Him. May Your word to me be fulfilled; Your will be done. 

In what area of your life are you pushing back against what you know to be the will of God, fearing the pain, hardship, the change? This Christmas, will you start asking less questions for explanation and begin submitting to what You know to be His will? Jesus came, that through His life and sacrifice for us we can live the life He has prepared and called us to live.

You are the Lord’s servant; may His word to you be fulfilled.