Favor Found

December 21

If we had to design the family God would choose to be born into, we might pick a royal family, or perhaps a nice middle class couple. But God, as you might have noticed by now, likes to use unexpected people to fulfill his promises. And so he chose Mary, a young unmarried woman, probably only a teenager. It wasn’t about her pedigree or her accomplishments. It was about her heart.

When God told her, through the angel Gabriel, that she would conceive a baby by the Holy Spirit, she didn’t scream or laugh or pinch herself. She asked a couple of questions and then she agreed to be obedient. Just like God knew she would.

Today’s Ornament – The White Lily

Today’s Bible Verse – Luke 1:30-38

But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." "How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. 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 barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God." "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.