Encounter - Luke 1:26-38
26In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 28And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” 29But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. 30And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 33and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,
34And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
35And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 36And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. 37For nothing will be impossible with God.” 38And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
I think there’s a lot we can learn about how to encounter God in this passage. The Lord has a message for Mary. As we live in His presence, He speaks to us in the perfect time! He initiates encounter.
Also, He is okay if we don’t fully understand and have to ask/wrestle through something for a bit. He knows already what we will and will not understand before He even speaks to us. Even though the message is from God and an Angel brought it directly to Mary, she still didn’t fully understand! But she was allowed to ask questions (“How can this be..”). God is not offended or upset by this, but instead the Angel explains it to her. He takes the time to speak to her about the fullness of the message.
But lastly, and most importantly, we cannot always and do not need to fully comprehend what the Lord is doing and how it will work in order to submit to it, to Him. He gives us space to ask how this could be possible, but we must also know that He is good and we need to submit fully to Him, not based on our own understanding or comfort, but based on the fact that we are His and are here to do His will. In the end we don’t know if she fully understood or not, but she submits to the will of the Father anyway – FULL STOP.
This Christmas season, spend time asking he Lord what He has for you right now, listen and hear His voice and even if there is a question that comes, submit anyway. His purposes in our lives do not require our understanding. The most beautiful gift we were given, the Gift of His Son, was troublesome to the people involved. It didn’t make sense. Don’t be surprised if God speaks to you something that is beyond your comprehension. Allow yourself to encounter Him anyway!
