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24th December: The Woman Who Found Favour With God

... The angel said to her, `Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God'. Lk 1:30 (NIV)

Many obstetricians and others who take part in midwifery never quite lose their sense of the wonder of childbirth. Every time it is new, a new event, a new person made in the image of God. And if it brings a sense of wonder to them, no word is adequate to describe the thoughts and feelings of the mother cuddling and beginning to feed this new little bit of life that has been part of her.

Have you ever thought of the mixture of wonder, bewilderment and love in Mary's mind and heart as she cuddled and began to feed the infant Jesus? This little bit of life that had been part of her was to save his people from their sins. He was Emmanuel ('God with us'). And he was her little son.

At the Reformation the excessive devotion and frank worship of Mary in the mediaeval church brought an excessive reaction of indifference in much of Protestant thought about Mary. But the record in Scripture both by Matthew and especially by our medical colleague Luke is clear. `The Lord is with you', the angel Gabriel had said to Mary, 'you have found favour with God. You will be with child and give birth to son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High' (Lk 1:28-32 NIV).

The birth of Jesus adds in infinite degree to the wonder of childbirth. The woman whom God chose for this, the most momentous birth in the world's history, was one who could say simply to God's messenger: `I am the Lord's servant. May it be as you have said' (Lk 1:38 NIV). That must make us think.

Not to the rich he came and to the ruling,
(men full of meat, whom wholly he abhors),
Not to the fools grown insolent in fooling
Most, when the lost are dying at the doors;
Nay but to her who with a sweet thanksgiving
Took in tranquillity what God might bring,
Blessed him and waited, and within her living
Felt the arousal of a Holy Thing.
Ay for her infinite and endless honour
Found the Almighty in this flesh a tomb,
Pouring with power the Holy Ghost upon her,
Nothing disdainful of the Virgin's womb.

F W H Meyer St Paul

Further reading: Mt 1:18-25. Lk 1:26-38.

RRW