Small town girl

We took the weekend off - back at it today =) I hope this series blesses you!
Colossians 3:11

 In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile,circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters

My cat flips back and forth on the carpet attacking a straw wrapper. She leaps and pounces, retreats and attacks again, ears and tail flicking wildly. She rolls and bites and flails and stalks. She pauses to look up at me every so often, as if she is checking to make sure I witness her imagined prowess.  Then just as quickly she returns to her charade, overpowering the wrapper and prancing away proudly. 

How often I have been just like her.  Puffed up with pride over my imagined victory, ready to strut my stuff - I'm pretty awesome!  I wonder what God thinks about this pride.  I imagine he sees my proud silliness much the same way I witness my crazy cat!  But pride in my life causes much more than straw wrapper destruction.  Pride in my life can cause real damage. God seeks out the humble.

Picture this:

A young, small town girl, engaged, turns up pregnant so she leaves home to visit relative in another town.  Sounds like the plot of a Lifetime movie, instead it's the humble beginnings of the greatest story ever told. Christ's story. 

Luke 1:26b - 35, 38

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee,  to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. 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 asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.” 

The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God.

Mary responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.” And then the angel left her.

God used the humble, the girl who calls herself a servant, to bring us the Savior, Christ the Lord!

Mary isn't just humble, she also trust the Lord!  So many times pride is just a front for what is really going on inside us - fear! We act like we have it all together, even when we are afraid.  This is pride.  Mary was afraid too, she was confused and disturbed! Mary's response? "I am the Lord's servant." She trusts the Lord, even when life throws her for a loop (and this is a pretty big loop!) she still affirms that she trusts the Lord and will serve Him. 

Luke 1:39 - 56

 A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth.  At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.

 Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed.  Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me?  When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy.  You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”

 Mary responded,

“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
    How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
    and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
For the Mighty One is holy,
    and he has done great things for me.
He shows mercy from generation to generation
    to all who fear him.
His mighty arm has done tremendous things!
    He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
He has brought down princes from their thrones
    and exalted the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
    and sent the rich away with empty hands.
He has helped his servant Israel
    and remembered to be merciful.
For he made this promise to our ancestors,
    to Abraham and his children forever.”

Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her own home.

Mary isn't just accepting her fate here, or trying to ride out the storm, she is rejoicing in God's plan for her life! Her humility is shown throughout her song of praise.  

Mary does something very practical here.  She goes and finds someone who will share her burden. Mary finds comfort in her Aunt, she finds support, grace, and understanding.  Not everyone is going to understand Mary's situation, but Elizabeth does! Mary is humble enough to ask for and seek out help in her situation.  I find it very interesting that there is only one verse dedicated to the three months that Mary stayed with her aunt.  We don't hear about late night conversations, encouragement, morning sickness, or any of the other things which most certainly happened during that time. More often than not our pride and our fear are all wrapped up together.  Mary overcame pride by embracing humility, she overcomes fear by embracing joy!  Yes, but Mary was the mother of Jesus, she was pretty much perfect anyhow, right? But Mary needed a savior just like all the rest of us need a savior, a fact she points out in her song of praise. 

 Jesus grew up and had siblings, children of Mary and Joseph.  One of their children was named James, he wrote the book of James and shared this about pride: 

James 4:1-10

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you?  You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.  And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

You adulterers!Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.  Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,

“God opposes the proud
    but gives grace to the humble.”

So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world. Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

James was also a son of Mary, a brother of Jesus. Can you imagine growing up with Mary as your mom and Jesus as your brother? Yet from those circumstances, and though the power of the Holy Spirit, James shares with us a deep understanding - Humility pleases the Lord.  

God honors the humble, He gives them grace.  

Your past life and your current status, doesn't matter!  You can be from the best family or from the wrong side of the tracks, you can have everything or have nothing.  Christ is all that matters.