What Was Mary Thinking When She Said Yes?
Mary was pregnant with baby Jesus. Are you pregnant, or have you been pregnant, or do you know someone who is pregnant? Christmas is an exceptionally good time to encourage them to, or to put yourself into Mary’s situation. Imagine with me, there you are, with a rather large tummy, sitting side saddle on a donkey which is slowly making its way along the road on the approximate 111 kilometre journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. You balance and sway in rhythm with the donkey’s movement, kilometre after gruelling kilometre with your already swollen feet getting larger by the hour as they dangle in space by the donkey’s side. Nightfall eventually arrives, the donkey comes to a halt enabling you to slide your tired body from its back onto the ground. Both you and the donkey give a sigh of relief. Ah, to lie down. You lay on your aching back, cushioned from the hard earth beneath by a thin blanket, hands resting on your bulging belly.
You speak soft and comforting words to your baby within, assuring the little one and yourself, that everything is going to be just fine when you get to Bethlehem. Finally, the day arrives when you catch a glimpse of Bethlehem in the distance and a new spring of excitement rises bringing with it a smile to your tired face.
What possibility are you pregnant with? In accordance with God’s divine schedule for your life He has securely embedded within your spirit a seed of possibility which will, in a future time frame, be birthed into reality.
In the early stage of Mary’s pregnancy there was no physical evidence that she was pregnant. All Mary had was a promise from God, a deep inner knowing, followed by a prophetic word of confirmation from Elizabeth, who was herself living in the reality of the impossible becoming possible.
This is pretty much how it happened with me. A number of years back I was sitting in the lounge room of a lady who I had only recently met. She was leading a small group a women in their Bible study and I was observing her.
My thoughts wandered from what the lady was saying into my having a conversation in my mind with God and it was in that moment God planted a seed of possibility within my spirit. The seed was that one day in the future I would lead a women’s ministry that extended beyond the borders of my local church. I would bring women together and the ministry would be inclusive of women from different denominational streams.
I was taken aback by the enormity of the possibility and by my absolute lack of ability to bring it to pass in my own strength, even if I wanted to, which I wasn’t exactly sure at that time that I did! I gave the whole idea back to God accompanied with a, ‘This is totally beyond me, but it isn’t beyond You so I leave it in Your hands.’
Time passed, then I was asked to lead my own church’s women’s ministry where I personally grew, gained experience and developed my skill level. While my love for women and my belief in God’s outstanding design for women grew, I was a committee member for a multi-denominational ministry to pastors’ wives in my city. It was then my honour to be asked to lead that particular ministry. Now, when Conversations with a Pastor’s Wife was birthed the seed which God planted within my spirit all those years ago has matured and gone global.
The process, or the journey, between God having planted a seed, a dream, a vision, an out there idea, a ‘You have got to be kidding me’ thought, in your spirit and the birthing of that into a tangible reality is called faith.
Faith is the confident assurance that what we hope for is going to happen. It is the evidence of things we cannot yet see. Heb 11:1 NL
During this faith season there are many joys – A sense of excitement and expectancy; feeling the changes taking place within you; you imagine holding, feeling, touching your possibility; you can envision your future in this new venture; you prepare and educate yourself in readiness for its arrival.
During this faith season there are also many challenges – Holding the news of your growing possibility until God gives you the timing to tell others; handling people’s responses to your news who aren’t as excited about it all as you are; (Mary would have become the gossip of the whole village) being in need of a supportive person who believes in that which God is going to birth through your obedience to Him; (Joseph was quite within his rights to have Mary stoned to death) then comes the intensity of emotion when you are just desparate to give birth only it isn’t yet the appointed time, you have to wait.
Scripture doesn’t tell us a great deal about Mary. It doesn’t tell us her height or weight, whether she was beautiful or not, what her personality was like, or her gifting or about any bad habits she may have had. Scripture does tell us however, that Mary was a virgin, which speaks to us of character and also that she had a willing and obedient heart toward her God.
That growing seed of possibility which God has planted within you needs to be watched over and cared for, dreamed about and planned for, prayed through and then given birth to in the timing of God.
God views you as a faith filled woman of character, a woman He can trust who has a willing attitude to say, ‘Yes, Lord, I will carry Your seed of possibility full term and birth Your purpose into being’.
Happy Christmas from me to you. I would love for you to share with me about the possibility in God you are pregnant with. This is my last blog for the year. I will be back again in mid-January.