DAY 22

DELIVERER AND RENEWER

It is an interesting question.  “Mary did you know?”  Did she really know what Jesus would do?  The angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced in Luke 1:28-35

And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!”  But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. 

And to Joseph, the angel gave this message as found in Matthew 1:20-21,

“Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

So both Mary and Joseph had been given insight into who Jesus was and what he would become for mankind, but I think they probably did not understand the full extent of God’s plan.  I think they did understand that God had a plan and that he was using them in that plan.  There are so much paradoxes in the birth of Jesus.  Things that make us stop and say, “How can that possibly be?”  How can a virgin become pregnant?  How can the Creator step into his creation?  How can holy God enter into a world that is unholy?  How can an infinite God be born into finite flesh?  One of the questions that the song “Mary Did You Know” askes is, “Did you know that your Baby Boy has come to make you new?  This Child that you delivered will soon deliver you.”  This question and statement get at an amazing reality.  God chose Mary for an incredible privilege.  She was the one through whom his Son would enter into the world.  But at the end of the day, Mary had the same need that all of us do.  We need to be made new.  We need to be delivered.

This reminds me that there is no great act of service or devotion that I can do for God that will win my way into his eternal presence.  Christ came to accomplish something for mankind that we could not do on our own.  God wanted to restore our relationship with him and so it was necessary for us that Christ must enter into the world that he had created.

This advent season, let us remember that Jesus entered into the world that he created to deliver us and make us new.

MARY DID YOU KNOW

by Mark Lowry (lyrics) and Buddy Greene (music)

Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy would one day walk on water?
Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know
that your Baby Boy has come to make you new?
This Child that you delivered will soon deliver you.

Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy will calm the storm with His hand?
Did you know
that your Baby Boy has walked where angels trod?
When you kiss your little Baby you kissed the face of God?

Mary did you know..

The blind will see.
The deaf will hear.
The dead will live again.
The lame will leap.
The dumb will speak
The praises of The Lamb.

Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy is Lord of all creation?
Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy would one day rule the nations?
Did you know
that your Baby Boy is heaven’s perfect Lamb?
The sleeping Child you’re holding is the great “I am”