Christmas Superwoman

Can you find the Superwoman in this picture?

That's right... she's the only woman IN this picture.  She's Mary!

Over the past couple of weeks I have been thinking especially about the qualities of a woman who fears God... and one of the first woman from the Bible who came to mind is Mary.  Sure, we don't have the play-by-play description of Mary's everyday life the same way we have the Proverbs 31 woman, but the Bible tells us so much about who Mary was, and she's actually a very relevant example for women today!

Let's take a look at Luke 1.  Reading even just verses 26-26, we can get a solid picture of who Mary was. 

She was young.  Unmarried.  Engaged.  Probably only 12 or 13 years old!  But she loved the Lord and feared God.

When the angel first appeared to Mary, her immediate reaction was to DISCERN "what sort of greeting this might be."  This girl was discerning!  She had Biblical wisdom and humility, and was applying it to her life!

We know what happens: the angel tells Mary she will have a son who will be the Son of God, the Savior of the World.  He will be called Emmanuel, God with us.  Put yourself in Mary's shoes.  What an overwhelming gift!  What a responsibility!  She, a young teenager, was to carry the Messiah that she and her people had been waiting for for generations upon generations!! 

But there's a huge catch.  Her life will never be the same.  She's not yet married, and she'll be pregnant.  What will Joseph think?  And everyone else??  If Joseph leaves her, they'll think she cheated and she could be killed.  If he doesn't, everyone will look down on both of them!  She'll have a baby, and she'll have to take care of Him.  And her baby won't be like the others... her baby will be God!  I think many of us would see this as God "ruining our lives."

I'm sure all of this flashed through Mary's mind.  And what is her reaction?  Panic and say no?  Absolutely not!  She says,

"Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; Let it be to me according to your word."

That word servant??  She's saying slave!!  Doulos Kurios... slave of the Lord!  Here to serve!

What if we modeled ourselves after Mary?  In complete surrender to the will of the Lord, given over to whatever He has for our lives.  How would we live?  How much peace would we have?  How ready would we be for anything and everything?  She's got that ATAPAT (anytime, anyplace, anything) attitude.  She's such a role model!

Did you know she also wrote worship songs? Yup, this girl did it all!  Here's part of Mary's Song of Praise:

 

My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.

Amen!!