The Trailblazers of ChristmasSýnishorn

Mary

We all hold—knowingly and unknowingly—a long list of expectations.

Now, this isn’t entirely a bad thing. Expectations play a crucial role in our lives. They fill in the gaps in what we think and perceive, and they help us make sense of our complex world. The problem is not inherently what we expect, it’s that we often expect too much.

In the early pages of the Gospel of Luke, we see expectation—for good and for ill—at work in the life of Zechariah and Mary. In Luke 1, both have an encounter with an angel, and both have expectations.

“Zechariah asked the angel, ‘How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years’” (verse 18, NIV).

“‘How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’” (verse 34, NIV).

The exact same question! But with a key difference. One commentator puts it this way: “Mary’s question was logical. She asked the same question Zacharias asked (Luke 1:18), but his question was asked in skeptical unbelief, and her question was asked in wonder-filled faith.”

In both instances, expectations are in place.

For Zechariah, he expects God can’t come through on the promise he’s being given. For Mary, she expects God can and will come through on the promise she’s being given.

Her question is not one rooted in fear, but in faith.

For his doubt, Zechariah is silenced until his miracle child is born (verse 22). For her faith, Elizabeth calls Mary blessed (verse 45).

You and I have an invitation into a delicate dance. A dance of participation but not manipulation. A dance of lordship but not dictatorship. This divine tension of free will and divine sovereignty gives us the grace and space to fully entrust our lives to Jesus and also to courageously commit to obeying His leading. And it’s in the crevice of that reality that we find wonder in its fullest form. A trust and surrender to the great, divine mystery of life, mixed with a courageous acceptance of the call to participate in the story that divine mystery is writing in the here and the now.