Daily EncouragementSample

“Then the Spirit of the Highest
On a virgin meek came down,
And He burdened her with blessing,
And He painted her with renown;
For she bore the Lord’s anointed,
For His cross and for His crown.”
(W. C. Smith)

To call “Mary the mother of Jesus” blessed is not to worship her. It is rather to worship the One by whom she was so notably blessed, “the Mighty One” who did great things for her in making her the mother of his Son. While rightly refusing to worship her, we have sometimes been wrongly reluctant to call her blessed.

To call her blessed is to mark the example of her godly life. We should note her transparency - “Mary wondered what kind of greeting this might be”; her purity - “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”; her spirituality - “My spirit rejoices in God my Saviour”; her patience - “His mother treasured all these things in her heart”; her endurance - “A sword will pierce your own soul”; her meekness and self-effacement - she is present in the upper room at Pentecost, and then we hear her name no more. “God sent his Son,” says Paul, “born of a woman . . . ” (Gal. 4:4).

To call her blessed is to accept her advice about her Son - “do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5).