Today’s reading is Luke 1:1-2:52.

I can hardly imagine being Zechariah or Mary when Gabriel appeared. I wonder what he looked like. I wonder what it felt like with an angel in the room. I’m simply in awe of what that must have been like.

What feelings did it engender? Looks like fear was the common response. But the angel calmed them, “Do not be afraid,” he said. Then he explained interesting events. Elizabeth, barren for many years, would finally have a son (hear Abraham and Sarah’s story in this). Mary, a virgin, betrothed but as yet unmarried, would also have a child.

The part that really struck me today was Mary’s response: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Did she know what she was agreeing to? Did she know the scorn and ridicule she would suffer as an unwed mother? Did she know that people would hold that against her son as he grew up (cf. John 8:41)? Did she know the pain she would experience when her son died a young man, an innocent man dying a criminal’s death?

I have no idea what she knew or thought at the time. She didn’t know either. However, as her father Abraham followed God wherever He led even if he didn’t know where it was going to be, she was willing to pursue whatever God had in store for her.

I need to have this attitude as I read God’s word. “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” I need to have the faith and trust that God’s way works. Whatever He has in store for me will be all right in the end, even if it leads through hard and difficult times.

Keep the faith and keep reading,

ELC

P.S. What caught your heart in today’s reading?