In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. 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 behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Ancient scripture as recorded by Luke, the companion of Paul the Apostle
This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 22nd, 2004 at 7:40 amand is filed under Open Source Theology.
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it’s really striking me this christmas how the angel says mary is blessed and so at that point, she’s probably expecting good things to come. but wait! God’s perfect will for her life in the next few years would be having her child in the middle of nowhere, finding out the ruler of the country has put a hit out on her first son, and having to flee the country to EGYPT of all places with her husband. how many times in our lives do we feel like God has told us he has good things for us and then nothing but crappy circumstances come afterwards? if only in those circumstances, we could still remember we are favored.
go autumn!
Isn’t God’s economy so upside down from ours?
Weakness = Strength
Foolishness = wisdom
Death = Life