The Girl who said "Yes"

What would make God choose a young girl from a back-of-the-woods family to be the mother of His only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ?

Think about it: Mary was living in the wrong country, Galilee of the Gentiles. Living among Gentiles? Surely, the Messiah would be born and live in Jerusalem among the Jewish hierarchy. She was from the wrong family, a poor household in the insignificant town of Nazareth. Surely a palace was the place to find the family of the King of Kings. 

No wonder Mary was perplexed when the Angel Gabriel paid her a visit, addressed her as “favoured one” and told her she had found favour with God and was going to have a baby – not any ordinary baby, but the Son of the Most High! She was already engaged to a man, so this was quite a situation. How could she tell her parents and her betrothed that she was not going to marry him and that she was expecting a baby! Think of the scandal in the town! This is all impossible. 

Her first reply to the angel was that a baby could not be on the way – she was a virgin. Note that the first person to raise the problem of the virgin birth was Mary herself. She received an answer that multiplied the questions and problems. Surely, she will say “NO!! Not at all, no way!”; but she said “YES, Let it happen as you have said” – an amazing response, a dangerous one it was going to be, but she trusted God and acquiesced – amazingly brave and trustful! 

We should give thanks to God for His absolutely vital choice of the right person to be the mother of Jesus. This is not a plea to worship Mary, or to pray to her – but simply to recognize her more often than we do … and to follow her example in saying “YES” to God.

Dr Ray Laird