Issue link: http://denverseminary.uberflip.com/i/1433252
10 DECEMBER THE MYSTERY OF GOD'S MOVING For Christ is born of Mary, and gathered all above, While mortals sleep, the angels keep their watch of wond'ring love. O morning stars, together proclaim the holy birth! And praises sing—let "Glory!" ring with peace to all on earth! Luke 1:26-38 Sometimes God doesn't make sense to us. Like when He graces us with abundant finances and we feel undeser ving. Or when He allows cancer to ravage the most spiritual of our friends. Or when He swoops us into a relationship of marital love when we'd given up on finding our "person." Or when He stays silent to our most sincere pleas for healing in a broken relationship. Or when God provides rescue for humankind's tor turous plight of suffering and sin through a Savior arriving not as an expected king arrayed in splendor, but as a baby born in straw. Mar y was just a girl, maybe twelve or thir teen years old, and still a virgin. Raised in a humble farming home in Nazareth, she was engaged to be married, a betrothal which in New Testament times was just as binding as marriage itself. Except this relationship did not include sexual intimacy—that was reser ved for after the wedding ceremony. So, when an angel stunningly appeared to Mar y in Luke 1, she was "greatly troubled," (verse 29), which means confused, perplexed. She was pretty much knocked off balance. The angel then announced that she would become pregnant by the Holy Spirit and carr y a son whom she would name Jesus and that He would be "called the Son of the Most High" (verses 31-32). Mar y was astonished—not in disbelief but in curious wonder. How would this miracle happen? God didn't quite make sense to Mar y. First, she was confused. Who wouldn't be? Then she was astonished. A real-life flesh and blood baby was implanted by God Himself, and grew to full term in Mar y's virginal womb. We're still stunned today, aren't we? Because sometimes God doesn't make sense to us. He acts, or He doesn't. We're confused. Then He acts in other ways. And we're astonished.