It’s one thing not to believe what God says – but quite another not to understand the things He tells you.
For whilst Zechariah was guilty of not accepting what the angel had told him, and lovingly disciplined as a result, Mary was not.
It must have been incredibly difficult for Mary – to be pregnant and unmarried in a culture that deplored those in that situation. Even so, though she was still a virgin, and though she couldn’t see how it would come about, she believed the angel’s words. And rather than railing against what was happening to her, which would have been a wholly understandable response, she instead, bravely and entirely appropriately, requested further explanation of what would happen to from the one who had brought her the earth-shattering news that she would bear a child out of wedlock.
And so she asked ‘How will this be?’ For hers was a faith in search of understanding. [Luke 1:34] One that then enabled her, in all humility, to say, ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’ [Luke 1:38]
And just as it wasn’t wrong for Mary, neither is it wrong for us to ask God to reveal more of himself. Because He understands our perplexity and delights in our honest enquiry.
And whilst His response may raise more questions than it answers, it is – in part at least – through our seeking to know more of him that our faith slowly grows. And as it does, we gradually come to appreciate that it does all make sense, even if we may not, for the time being at least, see how.
And so there is hope for the bemused and the bewildered, for the muddled and the mystified – because whilst ‘the secret things belong to the LORD our God, the things that are revealed belong to us.’ [Deuteronomy 29:29]
And these are more than sufficient for now.
To read Day 5 from 2023, click here
To read Day 5 from 2024, click here
Some musings 