Imagine Being Mary…

She didn’t say, but I am not married.  She didn’t say, this is not what I had planned for my life.  She didn’t say, what if Joseph doesn’t stay with me. She didn’t say, what will people think, I am not married.  None of that. In fact, she said, I am the Lord’s servant, may your word to me be fulfilled. Another version says, let it be to me according to your word.  She was willing…for whatever the Lord had planned for her, whatever He purposed her. I want to be a “let it be to me” kind of girl!  It’s a posture of surrender, a “not my will but Yours be done” response; evidence of submission that proclaims my life is not my own.

This was Mary’s response to the angel that informed her that she would conceive and give birth to Jesus. Young, unmarried and given a purpose from God that could bring her and her fiance’ shame and disgrace in human sight…and yet she said, let it be to me.  

Think about the difference it could make in our lives if we were more like Mary. If we were willing, if we embraced that we are His servant; if we completely understood we are here for His purpose and His glory. If we are given an illness, if we endure marital problems, if we struggle financially, if we have parenting issues, if we have baggage from our past, unhealed wounds, fill in the blank…what if we intentionally chose to look through some new lenses and commit “Let it be to me”. Can you imagine the shift in our lives? Can you imagine the witness for the trust we have in our Savior? Can you imagine the peace that we would not only have but shower on others…the hope Jesus could offer through our lives,–all to His glory? And really, why would we not?? How many times has He ever let us down? 

Mary visits Elizabeth after hearing this news and sings a song of praise, “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior…” it doesn’t get any better than that!

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