Devotions for 12-18-24
Luke 1:28 “He came to her and said, ‘Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!’”
The story of Christmas contains many strange and wonderful happenings. We usually think of some of those like the birth of Jesus in a stable where He was laid in a manger, or the angels visit to the shepherds, or the wise men following a star from the east to where Jesus was in Bethlehem. But the story of the birth of Jesus starts earlier, 9 months earlier, with the visit of an angel to Mary. Luke 1 contains the story of the visit of the angel to Mary and it starts out with a very strange greeting.
“Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” This is what the Angel said to a very frightened, young girl.
Think of it. Mary was confronted by an angel! Out of nowhere an angel suddenly appears to Mary. Either in her home, or when she was out walking just outside of Nazareth, when Mary was going on about her normal life waiting for her marriage to Joseph to come to be the angel appeared. She was a normal girl awaiting her life outside of her parent’s home to begin. Then suddenly, Gabriel, the archangel appears to her. She would have been scared out of her mind.
In almost every setting where an angel of the Lord appears to anyone the bible says that the people reacted with great fear. For whatever reason, the appearance of angels is usually associated with the people they come to, being overcome with great fear. Mary was no different. In verse 29 we are told that the angel says to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary.”
Mary was fearful and confused. She had the same fear of seeing an angel almost everyone else who has ever seen on did, and she was confused at the message the angel gave to her. It didn’t make any sense.
But, listen again to the angel’s greeting. That is my focus in this devotional, not the message of Mary becoming pregnant with the Son of God. The greeting the angle met her with was, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you.”
“O favored one.” Mary was a specially chosen young girl. God was choosing her for a special task, to bear and then raise His son. Mary was the only woman in history to have been chosen for such a special task. So, yes, Mary was God’s favored one.
Reading this, got me thinking. Aren’t we all favored ones? Doesn’t God choose and call all of us?
When Jesus called His disciples, they must have also been “favored ones.” They were chosen for a special task, to carry His gospel to all the world as His disciples and apostles.
What about the prophets. Certainly they were favored ones too. God called then for a special task, to bring His word to the people. Then there are all the other favored ones in the bible that God chose for some special task, Moses, Abraham and Sara, King David, Gideon, Sampson and so many others. Certainly they were favored ones chosen by God to do the work God was calling them to do.
And what about you and me? Are we favored ones? While we are not Mary, the mother of Jesus, we are still favored ones because we too have been chosen and called by God. He chose us to be His child and called us to walk with Him and do the good works He created us to do. We are favored ones too. You are God’s favored one!
When we consider that the creator of all, chose and called us and is making a home for us in heaven, we must know and understand that, yes, we too are God’s favored ones. Rejoice in that, O favored one!
Pastor Gary
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