Luke 1:45. ‘And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.’ The story of Mary is crucial to the message of Christmas. Luke’s summary of Mary’s encounter with God through an angel gives us an insight into Mary’s mind during this faith-challenging period.

Indeed, Luke explains that the faith-challenging period started with Zachariah and then his barren wife Elizabeth who too would be challenged to believe that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to them from the Lord. Joseph too would be called to believe!

The challenge of faith in God’s declared word would have been familiar to Mary’s family in the continual retelling of Israel’s history. However, there is a big difference between reading about the ‘faith to believe’ by others in the past and being personally confronted with trusting God in our own current journey of faith.

This is especially so when God takes us through an unusual route or a dangerous scenario. I can certainly recall many instances in my own journey when obeying God’s call on my life would cause well-meaning friends, family members and church family to question the routes I have taken and the dangers I have walked into because of what I believed to be God’s voice to me.

So, Mary’s scenario was certainly strange and interesting. She would be asked to give birth to a son who already existed before the foundation of the world and therefore before Mary herself was born. A son existing before a mother! Odd? Yes! Crazy? Most definitely! Embarrassing, dangerous, scary, messy? What would this all look like and how would this alter her and Joseph’s plans for their future; and what would be the reputational impact on their immediate families as well as the wider family, especially with Zachariah being a priest?

When Mary approached Elizabeth’s house so many thoughts must have been rehearsed in both their minds.

As we again confront the arrival of Jesus into our broken world and the challenge it brought to humanity at that time, we too are challenged to trust the same loving God who is still calling us to himself and his purposes even now!

For me it is amazing to think that, when Jesus finally appeared, so few people recognised that the saviour of the world had arrived. The religious masses and hierarchy generally missed it. Yet those who God visited and challenged would trust his declared word to them. Amongst the shepherds, wise men, and a few others, Mary who was probably a young teenager, accepted God’s will and responded with ‘let it be so’.

As I interact with many believers here and around the world in their journeys of faith, I can identify with the challenge that many have in following through with what they believe is God’s purpose for their lives.

I still remember in my early years, when I came to faith and later felt a call to ministry, out of respect I would always inform my parents of my decisions. While my mother would always support my choices, my father on the other hand would constantly chant the same phrase, ‘You are wasting your life.’ Fifty years later, my father is now one of my strongest supporters and no longer considers my life and faith-choices a wasted life!

As you reflect on the birth of Christ and the important role that Mary played in the drama, be encouraged to contemplate your own personal drama in your faith journey. Trust God to help you navigate, to put the right things or people in place, to provide protection and comfort as needed and to fulfil what He has begun in your life.

Just as Mary’s faith inspired others over the centuries and continues to inspire many today, so our faith will inspire others who are watching us and to whom we are a living light in today’s world. Whether you are as young as Mary was, or as old as Zachariah and Elizabeth, God has a purpose for all our lives! I pray that going forward you will be encouraged to ‘believe that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to you from the Lord’. May the memory of Christmas strengthen your faith in a loving God who can be trusted even in the most challenging times.

God’s plan for Mary came together and so can God’s plan for you!