Photo Credit: Sophie Pope

The Greatest Gift
Reading Selection for December 22^nd
“Be A Dwelling Space for God”

Luke 1:28, 38 (NLT) – [To Mary] “Gabriel appeared to her and said, ‘Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!’…Mary responded, ‘I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.’ And then the angel left her.”

Ann Voskamp writes on page 221, “Mary—she opens her hands and she nods.  And the promises come true in the space of her surrender—the pod of the Most High God lodging within her willing yes.  Beneath her heart—in one yielded space—beats the thrumming love of God.  There is no need to produce or perform or perfect—simply become a place for God.  That is all.”

And by one woman’s surrendered yes to God the Word was conceived and made flesh and Salvation was birthed in this realm—this realm of time, space, bodies and souls.  This realm of the messy.  This realm of the fallen and the broken.  This realm desperate for saving.

Becoming a place for God was simple, it just took a one syllable word, but it was not easy by any stretch of the imagination.  With that one word, Mary didn’t just surrender her body to God (as if that weren’t enough), she surrendered her future, her reputation, her relationships and her name.

The favor of God on this precious, obedient young woman, looked like an opportunity to be rejected, shamed and abandoned for being pregnant outside of marriage.  As a mother of teenage girls I can’t imagine having the conversation with one of my girls that Mary must have had with her parents.  In her culture, the price for her yes could have been very high indeed.

Sometimes answering the invitation by God to make room for Him in our lives is simple, but it is rarely easy.  Sometimes making room for God brings conflict.  Sometimes it brings rejection.  Sometimes it brings misunderstanding.  But it always brings life and it always bears fruit.

Mary responded yes to the coming of God in the flesh.  She made room for Advent.  What about you, are you willing to simply make space for God when He comes for your heart?  Are you willing to be a vessel that births new life?  Even if it isn’t easy or convenient?