Luke 1:28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.

It’s not every day that someone has an angel arrive with a message.  No wonder Mary was greatly troubled.  But look closer: she wasn’t troubled at him.  She was troubled at the angel’s word–at his greeting.

On the surface, there doesn’t seem to be much here to be troubled about. 

• Greetings!  (Seems friendly enough.)
• You who are highly favored.  (Not just favored.  Highly favored…literally favored one.  That might make a person wonder what she did to become favored, but favored in general is a good thing.  Certainly better than the alternatives.)
• The Lord is with you.  (This is the polar opposite of the Lord being against you.  Mary ought to be encouraged.)

So why would Mary be troubled?  No!  Greatly troubled?  Seems like plenty of good news going on here.  But Mary kept pondering what kind of greeting this would be.  Maybe she was waiting for the other shoe to drop.  Maybe she was waiting for him to say, “But…”

The favor of the Lord being “with her” is encouraging and yet Mary understandably didn’t know why or in what way.  Maybe she was troubled because she knew there was nothing she did to earn that favor and God would soon figure that out.

There is nothing Mary did to earn it.  God chose to bestow His favor upon Mary–though she was as human as any other person to walk the earth.  She made mistakes.  She didn’t always act in perfect accord with Scripture.  Her son Jesus would be the only person to live His entire life without sin.  Yet Mary found favor with God because grace (unmerited favor) is a defining characteristic of God.

Have you ever been in a place where you knew the Lord’s favor by how a circumstance came together or had a “wink from God” or a coincidence (which is when God chooses to remain silent)?  Maybe you’ve received a blessing so clearly from God that you knew the Lord was with you?  For others of us, we know the Lord’s being “with us” most clearly when we are sick or when we are dying.  Like the footprints story in which God carries us…

If you’ve ever been caught smack-dab in the very center of God’s will, and you’ve known the great favor of His clear presence, you know how unnerving this can be.  I’ve had 2 instances of this in my Christian walk and both times, I could feel the marrow of my bones quaking.  I wonder if that was a mild expression of how Mary felt in more profound measure–faced with the reality of the power of God and the magnitude of His grace.  I can only imagine that having an angel spell it out for you might shake you to your core.

One thing is for sure:  Mary’s life would never be the same after the greeting.

Luke 1:26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.  The virgin’s name was Mary.

For the record, I am really glad that God fulfilled the “Virgin Birth” when He did.  God chose Mary and boom!  Done deal! 

There was no pundit analysis about whether God had chosen the right virgin to bear the Son of God.  62% of the American public thinks God made the right choice, 33% think God’s choice is in the wrong direction, and 5% are agnostic and just don’t know.

Or worse, how awful things would be if He were to have waited until the present day’s reality TV and did things the modern way.  Ugh. 

Just imagine a sordid amalgamation of The Bachelor, The Apprentice, and a Woman’s Day essay contest answering, “Why I should be the Mother of the Son of God” in 500 words or less.

Fortunately for all of us, God was not on The Bachelor, gathering virgins around Himself to decide which one would be chosen at the end of the season.  God was not looking over well-crafted résumés; evaluating job performance; deciding which virgin would not move on to next week, and telling her, “You’re fired!”  The virgin didn’t have to win a talent competition, model a swimsuit, answer a question about world peace, dance with the stars, or even be interviewed by God before He might choose which lucky lady would be crowned Mother of the Son of God.  There were no tabloids featuring pictures of Mary with a baby bump with a headline that reads, “Virgin says, ‘God got me pregnant!’ Read our exclusive interview with the virgin on page 2.”

Rather, in a time of slower communication, in a rural nowhere town, there’s a humble young woman named Mary.  Luke, the writer of this Gospel, peels the onion away one layer at a time from the region of Galilee, to the town of Nazareth, to a virgin who is pledged to be married—layer by layer—until we see God knows her personally.  Her name is Mary.

No celebrity status.  No contest.  No qualifications on a resume or prior birthing experience.  Just a humble young woman—a virgin—full of godly character, having a huge heart of faith, and brimming with a willingness to serve God.  God chose.  Mary responded as God knew she would.  Simple.  Beautiful.  Humble.  Perfect.

Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Luke 1:26 In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary.

It’s a big announcement of an event anticipated since the Garden of Eden, so God sends an angel (Gabriel—one of the angels mentioned in the Old Testament and New Testament as a herald) to Nazareth—an obscure little town in the middle of nowhere.   A humble rural place.

Nazareth.   It’s never even mentioned in the Old Testament but by the time of the New Testament, it was considered a no-good kind of place, although it’s not clear why.

And Nathanael said to him, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” (John 1:46 NAS)

You can almost hear the disdain.  Nazareth’s reputation must have been common knowledge.  Was it a hick town, so small and insignificant that it wasn’t worth noting?  Or was it a place known for its lack of faith?  Scholars suggest both.  I suppose every town is known for something: Las Vegas has a reputation as Sin City–a place where your hidden activities stay secret, and Newark evokes images of smokestacks, industrial pollution, and generally being the armpit of the nation.

Yet, Nazareth was Mary’s hometown.  It became Jesus’ too.  After Joseph and Mary escape to Egypt to preserve Jesus’ life, Scripture tells us:

Matthew 2:19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt 20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are dead.” 21 So he got up, took the child and his mother and went to the land of Israel. 22 But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning in Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. Having been warned in a dream, he withdrew to the district of Galilee, 23 and he went and lived in a town called Nazareth. So was fulfilled what was said through the prophets: “He will be called a Nazarene.”

Nazareth was a no-good kind of place in the middle of nowhere.  But a young girl who loved the Lord lived there and she would be the mother of Jesus.  Because of Jesus, we can say “Yes, someone good and perfect  and wonderful came out of Nazareth.  He is our Savior.”

In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee,  to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. (Luke 1:26-27)

I guess we can all be glad that the Incarnation of Jesus Christ—when God became flesh—happened when and how it did.  In the person of Jesus Christ, God added manhood to His already existing Godhood.  God’s timing and His ways made the event of the Incarnation even more remarkable beyond simply miraculous.  It was perfect.

In this year’s Advent devotionals, we will explore the unexpected, unlikely, and uniquely divine qualities of God’s perfect plan.  His perfect plan includes His ways of bringing things to be, but it also includes His timing.

Sure, it’s easy to bemoan God’s timing when it isn’t fast enough to suit us; when we feel like we’ve been in the fire being purified a bit too long; when our Type-A-microwave-instant-gratification-high-speed-Internet-gotta-have-it-now personalities wanted God to do something yesterday and it’s today already; or when we’re languishing in a bad situation and praying for deliverance from it with no deliverance in sight.  These are the times that God seems like Mr. Slowsky, instead of the Divine Architect of the Perfect Plan.

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth—a tiny, humble little backwater town in Galilee—in the sixth month.

The sixth month of what?

Of Mary’s relative Elizabeth’s pregnancy with John the Baptist.  Let’s face it, though: Elizabeth was old.  She was resigned to being infertile on account of her biological clock having ceased ticking many years ago.  But now, look!  She’s far enough along to be showing considerably and to feel her baby moving.  First time mothers will often feel their babies move between 18-24 weeks.  That’s 4-6 months.  Yes, the sixth month.

Perfect timing.  Let’s jump ahead to see the perfection of this.

Luke 1:39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”

Yes, the sixth month of Elizabeth’s unexpected pregnancy was absolutely perfect to provide evidence that Mary, also, was right to be expecting the unexpected.

Is it possible to rejoice even when things don’t seem to be going well for you?

It’s easy to have faith and to rejoice in the LORD when everything is going along smoothly and you’re on the mountain top.  But when plunged into the valley; when suffering comes your way; when difficulties arise; when diagnoses aren’t what you hoped for; when you feel let down by God; when you’ve tried to do everything right–eat well, exercise, study Scripture, pray, shop at Target where you expect more and pay less, read the Wall Street Journal; and when you’ve done it all and things fall apart anyway, can you still rejoice?

Habakkuk says yes.

The Apostle Paul says yes, too.  He wrote the book on human suffering for the faith.  After listing numerous ways of suffering, he says this:

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,  neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:37-39)

Do you see how Paul kept his focus?  Just like Habakkuk.  We can rejoice in God our Savior.  Nothing can separate us from His love.  With this as sure knowledge, our hope endures and we press on!  Our faith will be rewarded someday.  We are strengthened to go on to the heights.

There is a sense of wonder about the dawning of another day when we look at each new day as a gift from a loving God.  Even when we are facing illness, sadness, confusion, or loss, these events are part of God’s handcrafting an eternal string of pearls.  From the perspective of eternity and with knowledge of a loving God through whose hands all things must pass, what seems unbearable today is tomorrow’s beauty from ashes.  No matter what comes today, know that God loves you.  He is hard at work today to give your life eternal beauty.  Imagine today as a pearl He is faithfully forming to be revealed some day in all its perfect beauty.

Rejoice today and wait upon the LORD.

Lamentations 3:18 So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the LORD.” 19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. 20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. 21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: 22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. 23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. 24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”