“The angel replied to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35)
The tidings of comfort and joy we’re discussing is the idea of the Grand Miracle, Jesus’ incarnation. In the incarnation, two millennia ago, God did a redemptive miracle in Mary. My contention is that He wants to do redemptive miracles in us, too.
After all, the Apostle Paul reminded us, “God wanted to make known among the Gentiles the glorious wealth of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)
So, if we want to allow God to work a miracle in our lives, we must first be open to that possibility. Then we must learn to listen to His voice. Before God will conceive a redemptive miracle in our lives, we must be able to conceive it in our minds.
Conception is used in two ways in the English language: becoming pregnant with a child or the development of an idea. One conceives and becomes pregnant, or one conceives an idea or opinion. I imagine both were difficult for Mary at this point – conceiving a child without a husband AND conceiving the very idea of such a thing happening!
Many times, we can’t conceive the idea of a miracle because we have pre-conceived notions of how miracles work.
We may feel that God’s miracles are for the spiritual people, the special people. Miracles aren’t for ordinary folks like us. Maybe we feel that God’s miracles are for the good people, the holy people. Miracles aren’t for sinners like us.
But neither of those pre-conceptions was true in Mary’s case. And neither is true for us. God has a redemptive miracle for an ordinary sinner like you or me if, like Mary, we’ll say, “Yes.” Let’s talk about it Sunday in my message, “Conceiving the Miraculous.”
