Surrender

I have been thinking a lot about Mary, Mother of God.  I have been particularly thinking of her regarding her surrender and the surrender of her womb to God.  One has to wonder from the sheer humanity of Mary’s role in the Incarnation how her life changed so dramatically upon the visitation from the angel Gabriel.  Here is Mary already betrothed to Joseph, yet in her own words still a virgin “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” I also wonder about her spiritual preparation.  What was her prayer life like and how was it that God had so transformed her life already that she was able to respond to a message such as Gabriel’s?

When I look at Mary I see the example of how we as humans and creations of God are to surrender to God.  Let’s look at the story. The angel says, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” (Luke 1:28 ESV) Is she favored because she has ascended to great spiritual heights?  Is she favored because she is morally unblemished?  Perhaps though, she is favored simply through grace, grace that is God’s alone to give.   Mary receives a special grace to something very unique in the world.  The angel assures her, ‘don’t be afraid’ for you have found favor with God.’

Hasn’t the world found favor with God in the sense that the Son of God became man so that man might be reconnected with God? “God so loved the world...” We are not favored because of what we’ve done.  We are favored by the very same grace that God bestowed upon Mary.  Mary is then told that she would bear a son, Son of the most high God.  What is her part to play in the deal?  Simply to surrender herself.  God would do the work. God would do the unimaginable.  The Holy Spirit would over shadow her and she would bear the Son of God.  God’s initiative and human response.

Does Mary negotiate with the angel?  Does she ask, “Hey, angel, what about my hopes and desires for my life?”  Luke shows us that she surrendered to God.  Mary’s response? “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38 ESV)  “Let it be to me according to your word.” What a response!  Would that we all could respond to God with those words!  No reservation, no pre-conditions, no bargaining.

Let us go back and remember what God wants for us.  We have to remember as Ruth Burrows says that God is not thinking of Himself and His satisfaction that His beholden subjects are worshipping and adoring properly. No He is thinking of us and our happiness and how our true happiness and fulfillment is found only through relationship in Him.  For this to happen we must surrender to God the control and the destiny of our lives as Mary did.  Transformation, putting on Christ is not something that we work to achieve.  It is God’s work in us.  It is a work you and I must prepare for through persistent prayer, study and action in life. It is to say with Mary,  “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38 ESV)