When God became man: Day 15

The progress of His coming: A maiden’s submissive response

And Mary said, “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her (Luke 1:38).

Mary -- a pure, Jewish, young woman -- had received news that was at once rapturously joyful and overwhelmingly frightful. She would become pregnant with the Messiah, but she would do so as a maiden only betrothed and not yet married. Even though she basked in the glow from the angel Gabriel explaining what would happen because God had chosen her, Mary probably could sense some of the cost that would come as well: What would her betrothed, Joseph, think? What would others think? What would happen to her? It may have been a stigma her Son and she carried for many years. John 8:41 implies some Jewish leaders may have mocked Jesus’ parentage. Yet, faced with all these fearful prospects, what was her response? “Behold, the bondslave of the Lord” – in other words, “I embrace Your will for my life” – and “may it be done to me according to Your word” – or “do unto me just as You have said you will.”

Song: “What Child Is This?”