“How will this be? Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
(Luke 1:35 NIV)
Sometimes the Lord speaks – through angels, scriptures, dreams or impressions – and we simply don’t understand. The words He’s sharing are impossible in our flesh. Mary received such words: she was going to bear a son, though she had never been with any man.
The text that follows has been subject to much discussion: how did the Holy Spirit impregnate a woman? We can speculate and wonder, but we cannot afford to get hung up there. According to my ob-gyn, every pregnancy is a miracle of tremendous proportions: the biological mysteries of fertilization and gestation are equally complex and vulnerable to a wide variety of extenuating factors. Yet people successfully procreate all the time; blissfully unaware of the microscopic miracles taking place in the dark of a woman’s womb. The missing piece in Mary’s story is the means of her divine donation. And that’s okay, we can sit with that discomfort because she certainly did.
What’s far more important than the unwritten details is the well-documented obedience of Mary’s heart.
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:37 NIV)
Mary didn’t understand but she was more than willing to obey. She was clueless about what this commitment might cost: physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually. She was in the dark about how a pregnancy happened apart from a man’s involvement. She did not know the joy and heartache she would bear as the human mother to the Son of God. She could not comprehend, but she was more than willing to cooperate.
I heard it said this week that love is mentioned four hundred times in scripture and we tend to think of it as the central theme of God’s Word. But we cannot overlook the seven hundred and some references to holiness as well. God is holy and He requires that we are made holy, as well. Holiness is so near to His heart that He sent His sinless Son to die on a cross to impute holiness on us. Obedience is how we cooperate with holiness: valuing God’s instructions enough to carry them through, even when we don’t understand.
“As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: be holy because I am holy.” (1 Peter 1:14-16 NIV)
It seems like what happened in Luke 5:1-11 with Peter and Jesus is played out over and over in scripture. We receive teaching. Then there’s an almost immediate opportunity to be tested in that teaching. But revelations comes after the fact. Obedience is essential to our transformation.
Lord, so often we don’t understand what You are doing or how You are doing it. That’s okay, you don’t require understanding. You require obedience. Please make our obey muscle mighty, Lord. We want to live in a way that honors You. Make us holy as You are holy: only You can accomplish that impossibility in our flesh. We choose to cooperate through obedience. We submit to Your leadership in our lives. Amen.