Luke 1:30
“Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”
Picture yourself in your room casually scrolling through Instagram and then a strange man just appears out of nowhere. He tells you to celebrate because the Lord is with you. My first instinct would be to run and get help. I can’t imagine how Mary felt when Gabriel did this exact thing.
The story of the angel Gabriel delivering the news of Jesus to Mary is so well known that the small details get hidden in the big picture. We just assume Mary was totally fine with a strange man telling her she had to be a mom.
Just to give you a better picture of what was happening, Mary was somewhere between the ages of 12-15. When I was that age, I was nowhere ready to be a mom. If a random dude just appeared in my room, I would scream and run.
Luke 1:29 gives us a good idea of how Mary responded to the angel’s appearance. It states, “But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.”
Mary was troubled. An angel of God, bringing the best news to the world, worried Mary. This is the angel’s response:
“…‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.’” Luke 1:30
God knew Mary would be troubled, so he told Gabriel to comfort Mary and share with her how He had found favor with her.
Sometimes God is inviting us into peace and we have a hard time trusting it. We push it away because we feel like it may be too good to be true or we feel we don’t deserve it. Maybe we even are afraid that it’s not from God.
Saying yes is the first step. Mary could have run. Then she would never have had the chance to be the mother of the messiah. When we trust peace and we trust God, we get to serve and play a significant role in God’s redemption story for humanity.
Take some time to pray and welcome God’s peace into the things you are troubled with. Trust that God is with you in everything.