Day 1:
My soul magnifies the Lord
Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a Son, and will call Him Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14).
…An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel”(which means “God with us”) (Matthew 1:20-23).
The teachers surrounded us protectively, trying to place their hands over our ears to cover the sound of the loud screams. We pelted down the hill, practically tumbling over each other as we ran.
I was probably six or seven years old. I had recently transferred from my first elementary school in "Town." Our entire family had been staying with my grandparents while my mother completed her program at the Teachers' Training College, but now we were back in our own home in the country.
Outside of my immediate home and school surroundings, I still found everything a little strange, so to this day, I'm not sure exactly where we went that day for our "nature walk." I remember it was at the top of a high hill, and the climb seemed steep and never-ending.
I didn't recall going on "nature walks" at my previous elementary school, but here in my new school, the curriculum included dedicated time for exploring and learning from the surrounding countryside. So we had set out that morning, in small groups, flanked by the teachers who would be our "nature-guides."
I don't particularly remember anything from nature in the walk itself that day, but my classmates and I were to get a lesson the curriculum had never planned or expected!
The screams we had heard ricocheting across the breezy hill, were in effect, the sounds of labor from one of the houses dotting the hillside—it seems we had arrived just when a baby had decided it was time to meet the world.
In all the excitement and confusion, very few details registered in my mind, but I have a hazy recollection of a woman with a large bag arriving on the scene. That would probably have been Mummy J. Later in life, I would recognize her as the herald of all births in the village. Hospital births were practically non-existent, and it was Mummy J., as the working midwife, who ushered into the world just about every soul in the village.
As I think back to that "nature lesson," and to those days of stoic determination and stubborn survival, I can't help but think of the Virgin Mary, and wonder at her time of "travail." I marvel at this young woman, introduced to us in in a state of shock, caught completely off-guard by "troubling" and bewildering news from an angel:
The angel went to [Mary] and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; His kingdom will never end.”
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:28-35).
The impact, the enormity of this news reverberates through the centuries. The virgin birth is one of the most ridiculed, most doubted, most maligned, and most misunderstood accounts in the Bible. And yet it is central to the core understanding of God's gift of redemption and of reconciliation to Himself.
The virgin birth was planned by God from the very beginning. It was the woman's offspring who would crush the head of the deceiver that had introduced death and destruction into God's perfect creation. God had declared this in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:15).
Under God's plan to bring spiritual restoration to a broken world, only someone completely perfect and without sin could redeem humanity from the state of sin that is part of their natural heritage. A perfect Redeemer could only be God Himself.
A perfect Redeemer also had to be born as man, so that He could be the bridge between God and man. But human fatherhood would mean sin, since "sin entered the world through one man and death through sin" (Romans 5:12).*
So God designed a birth plan that would enable His Son to take on full humanity without "inheriting" the sin nature that would come through man. He "sent His son born of a woman" (Galatians 4:4). A virgin, until after she had delivered the Saviour of the world. A perfect, astounding plan.*
No wonder Mary was "troubled" and bewildered! She sought to understand. As can we. But questioning and seeking to understand are not the same as disparaging doubt. Or blaspheming against the Holy Spirit by discrediting His work and His power. Jesus warns against this so very strongly:
"And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come" (Matthew 12:31-32).
It is worth considering that natural, physical birth is itself a wonder. We have gotten used to the "scientific" understanding of reproduction, but if we take a step back, we realize that the whole process is a marvelous mystery with elements way beyond our comprehension. So the fact that we are unable to understand the virgin birth is hardly surprising. Limiting God to our conception (accidental pun!) of design makes God no God at all.
If we really take the time to process, we will declare like the prophet Jeremiah, “Ah, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for You" (Jeremiah 32:17).
A troubled and confounded young woman took the time to process. And arrived at simple surrender, magnifying God from her soul: “I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May Your word to me be fulfilled...My soul magnifies the Lord..." (Luke 1:38, 46). I pray that our own journey also takes us there.
*For a more detailed discussion about the reason Jesus came, and the reason for the virgin birth, please click the links below to access the teaching series, The Struggle With Sin:
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