Over two-thousand years ago, a young unmarried girl who became pregnant risked disaster. Unless the father of the child agreed to marry her, she would probably remain unmarried for the rest of her life. If her own father rejected her, she could be forced into begging or prostitution in order to earn a living and survive. There would also be the rejection and ridicule by her friends. And if an unmarried girl, who became pregnant, was engaged to be married her fiancé could choose to charge her with unfaithfulness with the possibility of her death by stoning.
Today, over two-thousand years after a young unmarried girl, Mary, became pregnant by the Holy Spirit with the baby Jesus, the Christ, not much has changed, although there are a few exceptions. While the acceptance of unwed motherhood and of the abortion of unborn children continues to increase, social media almost always causes the most intimate of secrets to become “Front Page” news. This opens the door to one of today’s most toxic epidemics among young people today, cyberbullying. Statistics today continue to reveal the upward spiral of unwed pregnant teens, teenage single mothers, and post-abortive teenagers dealing daily with thoughts of suicide. As a father of five daughters and three granddaughters, I have to ask why God would choose a young, engaged girl to become pregnant by the Holy Spirit and to give birth to the Son of God. Why did God choose Mary? (See Luke 1:30-31)
Mary was young, poor, and female – all characteristics that, to the people of her day, would make her seem unusable by God for any major task. But God choose Mary for one of the most important acts of obedience he has ever demanded of anyone. The apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth, said this: “But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.” (1Corinthians 1:27)
Christians do believe in using their minds to weigh the evidence and make wise choices. But Paul is declaring that no amount of human knowledge can replace or bypass Christ’s work on the cross. If it could, Christ would be accessible only to the intellectually gifted and well educated and not to ordinary people or to children. God’s favor toward Mary (Luke 1:28) did not automatically bring instant success or fame. In Mary’s case, God’s blessing in the form of the honor of being the mother of the Messiah led to much pain as we have already described. But her son would become the world’s only hope, and this is why Mary has been praised by countless generations. Mary’s submission to the will of God was part of God’s plan to bring about our own salvation. If sorrow in any form weighs you down and diminishes your hope, think of Mary and wait patiently for God to finish working out His plan for your life and the lives of future generations. Always remembering, “…with God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:27b)