My mum has had such a huge impact on my life, teaching me how to live through her example. Can you think of a woman in your life who has been by your side – maybe your mum, a youth worker, a teacher or a family friend?
God would have taken time to choose someone pretty spectacular to teach Jesus, and when we look at who God trusted with this responsibility, we find Mary – just a normal girl, engaged and living in the middle of a small town, with an ordinary life. This actually blows my mind.
One of the most important jobs ever and God chose a girl who didn’t have any experience of being a mother and who didn’t have a secure home (she was still single!).
Mary was used right where she was; she didn’t have to go anywhere, do or be anything other than herself. Don’t ever believe that God won’t use you because you didn’t get the right grades, you haven’t got the experience, or you don’t live in the ‘right’ area. God will use you right where you are, right now: ‘I chose you before I gave you life’ – Jeremiah 1:5.
God has a job reserved especially for you, He picks you – not your sibling with the tidy room, not the person who sits next to you in maths, not even the fastest girl on the football team… He wants YOU.
God trusted Mary and He rewarded her, for her trust in Him, with an incredible mission. But she would still have been terrified and it would have felt ‘impossible’. God gets that and ensured she wouldn’t be alone:
‘So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.’ – Luke 1:35-37).
Mary and Elizabeth both became pregnant at similar times, because of a promise from God. They really would have needed someone beside them who would understand what they were going through. Sound familiar? I know in my life I have felt completely alone, only to find out someone I know is or has gone through the same thing. God created us for relationship, He knows that we need community. He provided Mary with the support she needed. He knows some of the things He calls us to do are hard to hold onto and so He places people around us who we can go through life with, who can help us believe the words from God. He shows us how it is possible. ‘For the Word of God will never fail’ – Luke 1:37
Mary took on the role of being Jesus’ mother and this came with its joys and its pains. She was there for his first breath, but she was also there for his last. We also read that she was there after his ascension into heaven as someone who continued to pray for his mission on earth: ‘They all joined together constantly in prayer’ – Acts 1:14.
She completely devoted herself to God’s call for her life, she trusted it from before birth, she continued to nurture it during life and she resiliently prayed for it’s fruit after it had finished. She was completely dedicated – I don’t even watch a movie without checking my phone and I certainly don’t always watch the trailer and stay for the credits! But Mary did. She watched the trailer, went to the premier, read the reviews, wrote some reviews, bought the DVD, listened to the soundtrack! She did it all and more.
I really want to be more like Mary; more focused on what God is doing, going to do and what He already has done. I want to learn to be less focused on what I’m struggling with and more focused on who is going through the same struggle. I want to know that God has called me, and He won’t love or want to use me anymore than He does right now. What about you?
