Help My Unbelief

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and he will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1:30-33)

Imagine what it must have been like for Mary to hear those words: “You have found favor with God.” Then to hear that she would conceive in her womb the Son of God. This was the promise, and it was fulfilled. But the details of its working-out were something else again. Mary did have a son, but from the beginning and on into manhood he led an ordinary life. Then, when the extraordinary emerged, in less than three years he was executed by the Roman government as a criminal.

Each of us has a similar promise spoken to us: “You have found favor with God … and you have been given an important role in God’s plan.” It’s true. But the up close working-out of it doesn’t seem that spectacular, or even easy. I can identify with the “ordinariness” of Mary’s life. But how can I identify with her faith, which she never lost? She believed, stayed the course, and lived well the seemingly obscure and sometimes confusing and sometimes difficult role that was given to her.

O Lord, I do believe. Help my unbelief.

Reava Davis