Lent find me thinking deeper these days...deeper than whether to wash colors or whites first, at least :)
But this week my mind settled on Mary, the mother of Jesus. What was it about her that caught God's attention? I have let my imagination travel a bit, and I believe God showed me something new that I had not considered before.
Mary was just an ordinary girl. But she was extraordinary, wasn't she? She lived day in and day out, the mundane threatening to numb her heart and mind. She practiced obedience, performed her duties, and learned how to keep a home. She accepted the arrangement with Joseph, for what other choice did she have?
Just an ordinary girl. But God...
I love when there is a "but God" in the story.
God had planned the scandalous, the irrational, the ludicrous...and she would be the bearer, the womb in which glory was veiled in human flesh.
What made Mary extraordinary? Why her, chosen to mother the Messiah?
Perhaps it was the day-to-day obedience, the silent prayers lifted when she was tempted, the faithful acceptance of the path set before her by her parents...
perhaps the submission to her earthly father's will made it not-so-difficult, not quite as large a leap, to accept the will of her heavenly father.
Faith is more than a feeling, it is a habit.
Trust is a practiced skill, and we must learn to crawl before we can walk.
Mary? She ran. She ran fully into the embrace of her Father and placed her life, her future, her heart fully into the hands of God.
"May it be to me as you have said."
And it was.
May I walk faithful in the small things.
May I practice this habit of trust so that when your call goes against the grain I am able to see it as the natural next step in my walk with you.
May we train up our children in this habit as well, that the transition that comes with maturity...the need to obey you because YOU lead them and not because we tell them to...is natural and seamless.
But this week my mind settled on Mary, the mother of Jesus. What was it about her that caught God's attention? I have let my imagination travel a bit, and I believe God showed me something new that I had not considered before.
Mary was just an ordinary girl. But she was extraordinary, wasn't she? She lived day in and day out, the mundane threatening to numb her heart and mind. She practiced obedience, performed her duties, and learned how to keep a home. She accepted the arrangement with Joseph, for what other choice did she have?
Just an ordinary girl. But God...
I love when there is a "but God" in the story.
God had planned the scandalous, the irrational, the ludicrous...and she would be the bearer, the womb in which glory was veiled in human flesh.
What made Mary extraordinary? Why her, chosen to mother the Messiah?
Perhaps it was the day-to-day obedience, the silent prayers lifted when she was tempted, the faithful acceptance of the path set before her by her parents...
perhaps the submission to her earthly father's will made it not-so-difficult, not quite as large a leap, to accept the will of her heavenly father.
Faith is more than a feeling, it is a habit.
Trust is a practiced skill, and we must learn to crawl before we can walk.
Mary? She ran. She ran fully into the embrace of her Father and placed her life, her future, her heart fully into the hands of God.
"May it be to me as you have said."
And it was.
May I walk faithful in the small things.
May I practice this habit of trust so that when your call goes against the grain I am able to see it as the natural next step in my walk with you.
May we train up our children in this habit as well, that the transition that comes with maturity...the need to obey you because YOU lead them and not because we tell them to...is natural and seamless.
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