Thank You, Mary

“And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word.  And the angel departed from her.”  Luke 2:38

What a difference in that day and today.  A young unmarried woman about to be married to Joseph was chosen by God to be the mother of the Son of God, Jesus Christ.  Imagine how fearful she was.  Of course, her first question was how she could have a Baby when she had not had sexual relations with Joseph or any other man.  It is estimated that she was still in her teens for it was not unusual for a teenage girl to get married at that young age.  I truly believe that teenagers were much more mature in those days than they are today generally speaking.  There are some teenagers who are levelheaded and think more like an adult, making better decisions and choosing worthwhile pursuits, but those are not the ones who make the headlines.  It is the rowdy, out-of-control, selfish, immature, and “entitled” young people who riot, use extremely foul language, and sometimes are seen doing the “smash and grab” stealing in stores.  I suppose there were some like that in ancient times, but they were likely very few and far between.  I can’t see our forefathers putting up with such insolence, disrespect, and terror like what is occurring now.  The devil certainly has a hold on a large part of the younger generation.

The second question that likely went through her mind is how Joseph was going to react to this news.  She was probably having a difficult time wrapping her head around this news.  Who wouldn’t?  She was engaged to him which, in those days, was as if they were already married, but not had relations with one another.  That would happen after the wedding ceremony.  Fast forward to today.  If a young woman has relations with a young man and becomes pregnant, she believes she has three options:  have the baby and keep him or her, have the baby and give him or her up for adoption, or, as society and the government promote, have an abortion which means she allows an abortionist to kill her baby.  I don’t call one who does an abortion a doctor because doctors are supposed to help people live, not kill them.

Make no mistake.  Abortion is murder.  An unborn baby is not a piece of tissue with no feeling.  Isaiah 44:2 tells us that God formed Jacob from the womb and repeated it in Isaiah 44:24 and 49:5.   God told Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations”.  Probably the most obvious verse in scripture which speaks of the fact that God ordains each person’s life before he or she is even conceived is found in Psalm 139:13-16.  David wrote that God had made every part of his body fearfully and wonderfully within his mother’s womb.  God was there every step of the way and planned out David’s life before he was born or conceived.

Some might argue that God only acknowledged His foreknowledge in the lives of those He chose for prophets and kings, but I believe He has a plan for every single baby who is conceived whether or not they are allowed to be born.  Who knows that the one who would come up with the cure for cancer has already been aborted?  What if Mary, in fear of what people would think, decided to end her pregnancy?  We would all be doomed to hell.  Decisions have consequences.  We know that abortion is not the unforgiveable sin, and that a woman can receive forgiveness for her choice at ending the life of a baby whom she has conceived, but that doesn’t take away the guilt that she feels when she realizes what she has done.  God is the only one who can rightfully choose to give a life or to end it.

Since God made the plan of salvation through His Son before the world was created, nothing could have thwarted the birth, ministry, suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ to give us hope.  Just as God chose Jacob, Jeremiah, and David for specific roles in history, He chose His own Son to be the Savior of the world.  Mary and Joseph both made great sacrifices in choosing to follow God’s plan for their lives regardless of any ridicule they could have received, but Jesus made the greatest sacrifice of all.