Luke 1 NLT
Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!” Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”… Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her. (28-33, 38)
At the very beginning of Luke’s gospel, we meet young Mary, the mother of Jesus, who is known as a “favored one.” I am struck by that term because we often associate the favor of God with joy and blessing, and the favor of God is a positive thing. Yet, being the one who found favor with God meant more than just blessing. I doubt she felt favored when she was pregnant out of wedlock and likely ridiculed by her family and neighbors. I am sure she did not feel favored by all the sidelong glances, by the initial doubts of her betrothed Joseph, or by the grueling journey to Bethlehem. This young girl doesn’t appear to be favored as she labors all alone, far from her family, in a dirty stable and gives birth in the most humbling and frightening of circumstances. Then to watch her firstborn live a life of suffering, being misunderstood by the religious establishment, becoming an outcast, and eventually nailed to a cross—I am sure it did not feel like “favor.”
But she was favored! She was the conduit by which God came into the world in human flesh. She had the joy of loving Him, holding Him, raising Him, and being loved in return by Him. She became the mother of the King whose Kingdom will never end. We can see the favor of God in Mary by the response that the Lord birthed in her. Mary had a heart of obedience. She had a heart to be the Lord’s servant and a heart like that is not born of human will; a heart like that is formed in someone by the Spirit of God. Mary was favored because she considered the will of God and the glory of God to be more important than anything personal to her. She endured shame, suffering, pain, and isolation because God had chosen to favor her—and she rejoiced in that favor regardless of the cost. The will of God for your life typically means more than just joy and blessing; it also means service and suffering. Yet, those too are favors from God because in those times we have the opportunity to be used to change the world. Embrace the favor of God in your life no matter how wonderful or how difficult the results.
