By Alun Burt, serving in Cape Town, South Africa

Read Luke 1:26-38 

Have you ever played one of those ‘trust games’ beloved by youth groups and team-building seminars? One person falls backwards into the (hopefully) waiting arms of their comrades. To put your life into the hands of your friends takes a certain level of trust.  

But it’s nothing like the level of trust demonstrated by young Mary at the visit of the angel Gabriel. ‘Behold’, she says ‘I am the servant of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word’ (v38). Mary both trusts that the Lord’s word to her is true and trusts the Lord with the consequences of his word on her life – even though that now includes a teenage pregnancy out of wedlock in a society where the death penalty still existed for adultery.  

How can Mary trust the Lord so matter-of-factly? Because she believes the word of God, brought to her by the angel. She believes this human child, conceived in and borne by her, will be the Son of God, incarnated by the power of the Holy Spirit. God made flesh. This undreamed-of-by-humans, philosophically-impossible happening, happens because ‘nothing is impossible with God’ (v37).  

As God’s Son, this child will be able to be, and to do, everything that his forefathers were supposed to be and do but failed. He will reign on the ‘throne of his father David … and of his kingdom there will be no end’ (v32-33) for his enemies, sin and death, will never defeat him. That is why he must be named ‘Jesus’, which means ‘God saves’, because he alone can save his people from their sin and consequent judgment. Ultimately, he will lay down his life as the perfect sacrifice on the cross. 

Such a King deserves our trust. We, like Mary, can trust our King’s plans and purposes for our lives, whatever suffering they may entail. We, like Mary, can set aside the comforts and conveniences of our lives to be his servants. We, like Mary, can hear and believe our God’s unfailing word. Why not pray that God may grow in us, and our brothers and sisters around the world, this faith this Christmas?