“So God sends Gabriel on his second errand. To a teenager. A kid. Not one with any particular pedigree that’d make us expect God to turn up. She’s young and unmarried. She’s a woman and a Jew. That’s not how we human beings do power. But this is not the decision of a human being.
Gabriel says, “OK, this is a little weird, but you’re going to have a kid.”
Mary says, “I am a kid.”
“Shut up. You’re going to have a kid. And your kid will be God’s kid. And y’all’s kid will save the universe. That’s the plan.”
And the angel and all of creation wait with bated breath to see what she will say.
And Mary says, “OK.”
A Baptist preacher I know says that “salvation begins with Mary’s yes.” Unlike Zechariah, a properly trained religious professional who says nah, Mary, the first Christian, says, “Sure, I’m in. Whatever you want God.” And we Christians have tried to go on saying “whatever you want God” ever since.
I wonder about you. What outrageous plan does God want to birth in your life? What risk does God want you to take? What cockamamy idea is God hatching, waiting for you to stick your neck out and to say “OK, count me in.”...
Mary announces, “God has scattered the proud in the imaginations of their hearts and exalted the lowly and weak.” In the fourth century, Saint Ephrem the Syrian said that at Christmas the reins of the universe are handed to a baby. Sounds fun and dangerous, doesn’t it? Babies don’t normally drive chariots, but that’s how God does things.”