The weekly Five Minute Friday word prompt for this week is “birth.” This word prompt also fits well for the #AdventUs Advent devotional from the Slate Project from Luke 1:30 for today.
“The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God—Luke 1:30
Let’s get real friends! Mary had every right to be scared. As a woman who has chosen to be a virgin, I would pee my pants if someone, an angel came to me and told me that I would bear the Messiah. So Mary’s fear was real. A virgin with child..only God could pull this off!
“Do not be afraid.”
Mary gives birth in a manger; really in a barn. Can you imagine the smells that she was experiencing? Or even the noises? Cows mooing. Sheep bleating. And then an infants cry. The cry of Emmanuel; God with us.
“Do not be afraid.”
I empathize with Mary. I am an individual who tries to do her very best to trust in God. What if Mary hadn’t believed? Who would have born the Christ child? I wonder if the other women around here wondered if it would be her. I know I would have asked and pondered and wondered.
“Do not be afraid.”
Yet Mary did more than trusted! She gave birth. She “pondered all these things and treasured them in her heart.”
I am encouraged that Mary chose to ponder all these things and treasure them in her heart. I am also inspired by Mary’s active faith and trust in God and his plan. Thank you for sharing your heart about Mary. I am stopping by from Five Minute Friday.
Thanks!
So many things that God requests
are truly terrifying.
It’s hard to see them for the best,
so they send my feet a-flying.
Like Jonah I would put to sea
(anything but Nineveh!)
but God would simply shake my tree
and set me back to where the
directive He had underscored
as my peculiar mission
of a sudden became what I’d afford
rather than whale-fishin’.
Best to serve God and His wish
than become a repast for a fish.
Love it!