One On One: 100 Days With Jesus--ADVENTSample

Mary Sang: The Teenager who Knew God's Word   

For five days she walked. Thinking. Praying. South to Jerusalem. To her aunt, Elizabeth. Processing, What just happened? 

Mary grew up believing God was present with His people, even in His silence. She knew God promised Abraham a great nation. God handpicked Moses to free her people from slavery. God parted the Red Sea and fed her people for 40 years in the desert. God gave them this land. God was behind everything; she just knew it. 

She knew God promised them a Messiah. Every Passover she set an extra cup at the table for Elijah in case he stopped in to say the Messiah is here at last. Her family left the door open for him. 

So, when Gabriel told her the Messiah was on His way, it was no strange notice. The surprise was at this minute, He was moving inside her womb. 

On her 100-mile walk south, when just she and Gabriel knew this unfolding plan, Mary called back to mind every Scripture she ever heard about the Messiah. Who He was. What He would do. What did the prophet Isaiah say? What were Daniel’s prophecies? The Psalms? The Bible had been the soundtrack of her home and now she sang it softly to herself. 

At this critical turning point, she trusted the God she grew up believing. She released the hundred reasons this should not be and simply said, “whatever You want, Lord.” Her heart beat faster with her choice now made. 

All it took to let her secret out was showing up at Elizabeth’s door. At Mary’s hello, baby John—still in Elizabeth’s womb—skipped like a lamb. Without Mary saying a word, Elizabeth guessed her secret. With a hug, “You’re blessed among women, my sweet girl, because you believe what God said; you believe every word.” 

And in all the confusing mix of breathtaking privilege and unspeakable pain Mary had pondered in those 100 miles, her faith and joy came bubbling out in worship to God. 

“Yes, can you believe it?” she burst into a praise song which wove together 12 Old Testament promises all answered in the Messiah’s coming. She entered the mystery with confidence. 

Mary had believed God’s Word her whole life and now she was stepping into the most significant story of all. 

Tomorrow: One on one with the man who believed the impossible.