Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High…Luke 1:31-33

And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word. Luke 1:38

God’s Promises, Soon to be Fulfilled

In the days of King Herod, for us a long time ago, an angel appeared to a virgin, to whom he assured held great favor in the eyes of the Lord. Her name was Mary, and though now we remember her with awe and great memory, back then she was just a meek peasant girl due to be wed.

Behold, the angel Gabriel says, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great…the highest among them.

The Lord’s favor wrote a new story over Mary, sending His Son into the world through her to bring good news to the poor, bind up the brokenhearted, and set the captives free. To comfort all who mourn, exchange our ashes for beauty, our mourning for gladness, and trade our faint spirits for a garment of praise (Isaiah 61:1-3). Because of what the Lord has done, entering into this world of chaotic wonder, we all have a living hope – a treasure held in jars of clay – revealing God’s kind nature to us every waking day.

Mary knew the promises of God; up until then, she built her life on them. When the angel Gabriel declared her coming steps, bearing this child who would supposedly save the world, Mary returned to the words of scripture hidden in her heart. She remembered the hope of her people, and the words He had spoken about the One He would faithfully send to us.

I will send a Redeemer.

I will bring blessing to the nations through David’s offspring.

His kingdom will have no end.

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

Right before her eyes, the ancient promises were unfolding. In a moment where she could’ve hidden away in fear or hardened her heart with discomfort and unwillingness, instead she chose to say, yes.

Behold, Mary exclaims,

I am the servant of the Lord;

let it be to me according to your word.

Surrendering to the Will of God

Mary’s yes, her “fiat”, expresses a willful submission to the purposes of God He so desired to carry out in and through her life. Her yes didn’t begin with the angel Gabriel; it began all those years earlier when she began gathering up the treasures of His promises in her heart for the coming day of the Lord. He will soon come, she’d hear growing up. Pouring her eyes over the scriptures, Mary prepared zealously for that day.

When the promises of God interrupted Mary’s own plans, declaring she would bear a son and name him Immanuel, she submitted joyfully because she had already found God to be good, and His plans – trustworthy. She didn’t need to go searching for new answers or conclusions. In her heart, she knew that God was good.

Mary surrendered her entire life — heart, soul, mind, and strength — to the Lord, releasing her expectations and embracing the purposes God had for her. Mary, who carried in her womb the Word Made Flesh, is an example to each of us of what it means to lay our lives down on the altar – allowing our whole lives to become an offering, an instrument of the Lord to awaken us to His glory.

Mary offered up her whole self to a God who fully gave Himself to us. Why on earth would He do that? Because of His great love.

This is what it sounds like to turn our lives over to God: let it be to me according to your word.

Surrendering to Love

If only we might say those same words and truly mean them. If only we proclaimed them with our mouth, and authenticated them through deeds of love and service. If only we, too, became willing to offer our bodies as a living sacrifice – holy and pleasing to God – as our true and proper worship. If only we surrendered to the Lord’s plan for our lives, wholeheartedly trusting that He has only our deepest happiness in mind.

If only we allowed God’s Word to mold us and shape us and conform our hearts, letting His promise dwell harmoniously in our bodies and souls. If only we were willing to find the freedom that comes from submission to God’s will – not bending and breaking, trying to fit into the patterns of this world, but instead allowing Christ to transform us through the renewal of our minds (Romans 12:1).

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God is inviting us into a story that may not offer any worldly accolades or titles, but will store up for us treasures far greater than anything in this world. Mary reminds us that when God asks us to open ourselves up to His plans and purposes, He doesn’t leave us empty handed.

God offers to fill us with His love in exchange of our own love poured out before Him – a holy and precious offering. We offer up our love to Him, and He fills every hidden corner of our heart until it’s overflowing. This is the God who asks us to trust Him. This is the God who is worth all of our affection and obedience.

His is a story of holy encounter, of precious love sent to us through a baby in a manger. Of promises fulfilled, and kings enthroned – entrance into heaven’s gates, one day endlessly singing holy is the Lord.

It’s a story about a Father who just really, really loves His children.

What a wonderful thing He’s writing – worthy of telling on the mountain.

Growing in Joyful Obedience

As Mary did, let us bring our own fiat (“yes”) to the Lord, believing that our trust and surrender takes us down paths far more wondrous than what we could ever imagine. Mary’s joyful obedience reminds us that being in the center of God’s will is a delightful place to be.

Let us consider how we might release ourselves of our own wills, our own agendas, our own plans for the future, that we instead might fix our gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, and embrace whatever He has for us – bearing His light in this dark world, revealing His heart to an aching people, and magnifying hope amidst a creation that waits with eager longing for the coming day of Christ (Romans 8:19).

Let us consider how we might ourselves become instruments of God’s transcendent peace and love, reflecting Christ’s radiance in this weary world – our own joyful obedience the waves the Lord’s goodness rides upon to bring the Kingdom of Heaven here to earth.

As it was with Mary, let it be so with you and me – gathering up the treasures of scripture in our heart, contemplating God’s goodness and faithfulness, and preparing our hearts to say yes when His invitation appears.

Come, let us remember who the Father has always been,

The covenants He created to bring us home again,

The pursuit of His children in the midst of our sins,

The way He calls out to us despite our heart’s reluctance.

Come, let us remember Him – that it may be to us according to His word.

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