Behold, the maidservant of the Lord!!

As the Christmas season approaches and the story of the birth of Christ is on our minds there are many things that we can take from a well known story. Sometimes we concentrate only on certain parts of the story and completely skip over others. This year as the Birthday of Christ arrives I encourage you to read Luke's account of the birth with eye wide open. Seeking to learn something new. This happened to me this week while working in the kids ministry at our church. The lesson was being given and it was a well known part of the story, but one phrase was said and it sent my mind whirling, 100 miles an hour.

Luke gives the most detailed account of the events that lead up to the birth of Christ as well as the event itself. In this passage Luke 1:26-38 the birth of Jesus is foretold to a very important piece of the puzzle. There are several things that have jumped out to me since reading the account thoroughly but the one I want to concentrate on MOST is the response of Mary.

²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed^[a] to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. ²⁸ And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”^{[b] 29} But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰ And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

³⁴ And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”<sup>[c]

35</sup> And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born^[d] will be called holy—the Son of God. ³⁶ And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.” ³⁸ And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant^[e] of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Now we all see Mary's initial surprise. I'm pretty sure if an angel appeared to us, we would be surprised at first too!! Then the angel says to her "Do not be afraid, you have found favor with the Lord" WOW!! Mary's parents must have done some serious training, or somewhere along the way she had an amazing Christian role model in her life. To find high favor in the Lord's site she must have been an outstanding woman. Then the angel tells her of the Lord's plan for her(don't we all wish it was that clear) and she has an honest question. "How can this be?" It was not a ridiculous question, after all she was a virgin. She was genuinely confused. She wasn't questioning God's plan, she was just asking for clarification. So the angel gives her clarification and tells her of another miracle that is under way, her cousin Elizabeth, in her old age has conceived. All of these things are things that we often concentrate on when telling the story but what I want to concentrate on is the final response that Mary has.

³⁸ And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant^[e] of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Absolute surrender, total trust and confidence,let it be. You know sometimes we skim over that as if it was no big deal. We know that it was the Lord's will to use Mary in this manner and sometimes I think we take for granted that she had the absolute perfect response!! WHAT IF SHE HAD SAID NO?? That was an option. Because we look back on it as history we see it as set in stone, final, the only way. However, we should realize that Mary could have said "No Way!! You are crazy, find someone else." I am sure that the Lord knew she had a heart for his will and would have the proper response but that doesn't change the fact that she was human and she could have said no.

Many time in life, when we find the will of God for our lives we don't have the proper response. We question God. We flat out tell him no. We worry what others will think. We try to think out all the scenario's in our mind and figure it out ourselves. We try to play god in our own lives and we deny the power and grace of God over our lives because we fail to just take him at his word and do as he says.

Here's the phrase that hit me this week...

You never know if what God is asking you to do will change the whole world.

Wow! That made me think(I'm not sure any of the kids got it but I sure did). I thought, geez, I could be giving birth to the next great missionary, Jim Elliot, Billy Graham, Corrie Ten Boom. Here I am complaining and questioning God's plan, because it wasn't what I had pre-determined in my heart, when he has a plan for this child!! Of course, it wasn't as clearly presented as the angel Gabriel coming down and telling me I was birthing the Messiah, but in that moment it seemed like I had seen an angel. Even if this child grows in the Lord and only reaches 1 soul for the Lord he will have served a purpose in the kingdom. Someone 20 years from now may be waiting, hurting, searching, and this child may be the smiling face that encourages them and leads them to the Lord. :) Brings tears to my eye's just thinking about it.

Daily, it seems, that we as Christians totally ignore the will of the Lord that has been made perfectly clear to us because it makes us uncomfortable(The Great Commission) and then wonder why he isn't revealing anything great to us. Mary was highly favored, this leads me to assume that she was daily walking in the will and promises of the Lord. The Lord didn't choose her for such a great task randomly, he knew clearly that she was a follower of him. Don't expect God to reveal something great to you, if you wont deny yourself daily, take up your cross and follow him. The blessing that we are missing out on because we wont simply obey. OUCH!!

As I have pondered these things I have prayed to the Lord "help me to have the heart and response of Mary. Anytime you as anything of me,  give me the GRACE that my response would be that of absolute surrender, total trust, and peace. Let it be! Behold, the maidservant of the Lord!"

Real faith begins, where myself ends!



Wow, June was quite a month! We left our house on May 31st and returned on July 1st, only stopping into the house for a nights sleep in between those dates. I am very excited to see next months utility bills, they should amount to almost nothing. Hooray! Although, amazingly, a clean house can get dirty, all by itself, when you are gone that long. I have no idea how(well...I'll share with you a few reasons later). We really had a lot of fun while we were gone. We met lots of new friends, did many fun activities, and got to see and do things that we wouldn't normally get to see or do outside of these circumstances. Although if we are being honest, it wasn't all giggles and grins. There were a few times I thought "We've lost our minds. What in the world were we thinking?" There were a lot of "Are we there yet's" and just about as many "enjoy the ride's". All in all, it was probably just about one of the best experiences we have had as a family. We have never been on vacation so I guess this could qualify as a vaca with a little(or a lot) of work mixed in!

 You know when you go on vacation you try to prepare your house right? You eat all the food that will spoil. You turn off any unnecessary electronics and other energy eaters. The checklist goes on and on. Well then you come home... your tired, hungry, and have a mountain of laundry about the size of your house to complete, yet you have no food, and no laundry soap(well, at least I didn't). I thought... "Man, I thought I had this well planned out. I should have had someone here set up to greet us with the necessities(toilet paper, milk, bread, LAUNDRY SOAP)"  Well, a girl can dream right?

There are a few other things that went wrong with my "perfect prep" for our house sitting empty for a month. So, I thought I would make a "Top 5" list of things that our travels taught us. If for nothing other than making you laugh!!

1. Check and double check that all toilets are flushed before you leave!! Trust me, after being gone that long, in a house with the a/c turned off, that's a nasty thing to come home to! I thought I had checked all of them but someone had obviously gone upstairs after my final re-check and used the bathroom. I thought someone had died in our house while we were gone!

2. Arrange for the neighbors to somehow get your trash out on trash day. Month old dirty diaper smell in your garage is not coming out anytime soon.


3. Take DVD's that will entertain your kids but not drive you up the wall while you are driving!! I can only listen to certain veggie tale songs so many times before I want to use an ice pick on my ear drum.

4. WE HAVE WAY TOO MUCH STUFF!!!! If my kids can live for a month in the same 10 outifts, and with only a backpack full of toys we need to get rid of some stuff. That exactly what I did when we got home. I went through closets and toys and picked out things that didn't fit anymore or just never get worn or played with or are broken.I do this on a monthly basis with clothes and toys anyways but this time I was really picky. When I was done we had a pile of toys for nana's new house, a bigger pile of toys for the goodwill store, and a bunch of clothes to donate. I feel much better now, but we still have way more than we need. This was a great way to have an eye opening conversation about people who are less fortunate than us and may not have as many nice things as we have. We should be grateful for all the Lord has given us!

5. You need at least a few days to recover your house when you get home. We came home Monday. We have been working non-stop since arriving home to get everything ready for our first preview service this Sunday for The Journey Baptist Church!!! As well as, taking a break in the evening for same patriotic family fun. Enjoying the holiday and the price that was paid so that we could live in this great country! Needless to say, I should have hired a maid. This house is a wreck and it is just getting worse and worse. This is not good for an OCD person AT ALL!! I just keep looking around me wanting to freak out and then I have to tell myself, PRIORITIZE. There is so much to be done. I will be happy to have things settle down next week so we can et our feet under us again!

There are so many more things that could be listed but I will spare you.

However, what I take most from our month of travels, are the many blessings and privileges that we experiences along the way. God taught us to truly rely on him. When we were taking each step into darkness, not knowing what was next, or how he would provide, he would gently whisper, TRUST ME. Our real faith was found when we were at the end of all that we could do, and we watched God provide time and time again. Not only for our needs, but for most of our wants as well. Just another reminder that God is so gracious to me, even when I don't deserve it, when I'm doubting myself, and when I have come to my end... That's when he can use me most!