Mary's Calling to Carry the Savior

Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

Luke 1:38

Mary was given some big news, when the Angel of the Lord told her that she would give birth to the Son of God.

According to what was recorded in the Scriptures, she was not given much explanation. Only that the Holy Spirit would come upon her and the power of the Highest would overshadow her, and that the One born would be the Son of God.

She wasn’t given a reason, only that nothing is impossible with God.

We don’t find in the Scriptures that she was given a plan, or told what the next steps were, or offered any way of breaking the news to Joseph.

The only other thing that we know she was told was that her cousin Elizabeth would have a baby as well, as further demonstration that nothing is impossible with God.

Mary must have had many questions, many worries, many fears.

But, her words to the angel were fearless: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word.”

Mary accepted what she knew had come from the Lord. The Scriptures do not record that she started crying after the angel left, or that she closed herself up in her room with a huge tub of ice cream and drowned her worries in food. (Who are we kidding? That’s exactly what I would have done!) According to the Word, it would appear that she did not run out to her closest friends and start discussing the matter and what to do. She didn’t strategize about what to say to Joseph or even how or when to tell him. She didn’t try to figure out how on earth such a thing could even happen to her.

Rather, the Scripture records, in the very next verse, “And Mary arose in those days, and went into the hill country with haste …”

She went with haste to see her cousin Elizabeth, and when she saw that Elizabeth, barren all her life, was pregnant, she immediately began praising God for His desire to look upon her lowly state and to do great things for her.

Mary was called to carry the Baby Jesus, but she knew the truth: that the Baby Jesus would be the One carrying her. She no doubt knew that there would be challenges ahead, but she also knew that something greater than the world was coming to overcome the world.

Mary had a vision for what the Lord could do in her life. She looked beyond the present, to the great and mighty things that the Holy One would do.

May we hold on to His great promises, and when faced with trials and tough times, may we, like Mary, simply say: Be it unto me according to your word.” Knowing that the Holy One will do great things for us, if only we will let Him carry us.