A friend and I get together every week or so to spend time writing and encouraging each other spiritually. This a piece I wrote during one of those times that was inspired from a writing prompt in a book called Birth A guide for Prayer by Jacqueline Syrup Bergar
After reading the passage from Luke 1:26-38 you were to write as if you were a character or something within the story.
Here's the passage from Luke 1:26-38
The Birth of Jesus Foretold
26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”
34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called[b] the Son of God. 36 Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37 For no word from God will ever fail.”
38 “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.
My name is Mary. I would consider myself to be quite ordinary. My life is much like any other girl in our small village. I am looking forward to the day my sweet Joseph and I will be married. Today as I was going about my everyday chores, something quite extraordinary happened.
I was mixing up biscuits for our family supper. Everyone else was out of the house. Suddenly an angel stood before me. I've heard of angels and in our history there are accounts of others who were visited by angels. Abraham and some of the prophets, perhaps, bu I am no one of consequence and yet here before me stands an angel.
The room around pales in the glory light that radiates from his presence. I admit that I was terrified. I found myself thinking. "Did I die while mixing biscuits?" It was almost too much for me to take in. The angel then spoke to me. "Greetings you who are highly favored." I look around to see if my mother or father had returned. Highly favored? Who me? Could the angel have gotten the wrong house? "The Lord is With You" Yes I had been praying and singing a simple Psalm of praise while I worked. What does this all mean - truly I felt troubled and was reminded that I am but dust fashioned by our almighty Father. The the angel must have sensed my shaking knees and trembling hands. The angel said" Do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God." In that instant I was filled with a peace unlike any I have ever felt. The angel spoke on now saying. "You will conceive and give birth to a son. You are to call him Jesus." The angel said more about him ruling on David's throne and his kingdom never ending.
But I'm a virgin...It would have been so easy to get stuck or side tracked by the impossible details of how and why. In that moment within me a great trust arose. If found myself saying
"May your world to me be fulfilled."
As I was writing this I could almost feel the weight of how this one moment totally changed Mary's life. Her faith in God would be met by skepticism, disbelief, shame, the disappointment of family, friends, neighbors and even for a time, her sweet Joseph.
Prayer:
Dearest Jesus,
I come to you and I am so sorry for the times I have missed a profound moment with you because I was focused on the logistics of how to make it possible. Help me to be more like Mary, willing to believe the off the charts strange and awesome experience in the encounter with the angel. Thank you, Papa that you delight to use the weak and the ordinary to astound a watching world. Holy Spirit bring me into the peace of your presence I pray that in those profound moments and encounters with the Heavenly realm and your presence, that I would be like Mary and be able to say..."May your word to me be fulfilled."
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