When the large, unearthly creature suddenly appeared to the teen girl in her home, she was rightly petrified. Wouldn’t you be?

Grown men who have met Gabriel are said to have fallen in terror or have been gripped with fear. Although human-like, he was clearly something other than. 

Thus he tells her, “Don’t be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God.”

What would this teenage girl’s response be to these words? As a girl, a mere child, a Galilean, someone from Nazareth in the Roman- controlled state of Israel, she had no standing in the world. She had no rights, no voice, no agency. 

And yet God knew her? And not only that, he favored her?

The messenger for God continued on, “You will conceive and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High God. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David,  and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

There was a lot to unpack there, but Mary probably shut down after three words: “You will conceive.”

So she asked the most obvious question. “How will this be? I am still a virgin.” 

The angel responds that the father of this child will be the Most High and come into existence through the Holy Spirit. I’m really not sure how I would have responded to all of that. 

Anxiety is essentially uncertainty. Uncertainty about our standing. Uncertainty about the future. Uncertainty about our safety. I’ve spent the better part of my adult life ridden with anxiety. I haven’t found anything that works to allay it all the time. Medication- sometimes. Exercising- sometimes. Drinking water and limiting caffeine- well, I maybe haven’t tried that one as well as I could. Even when I’m reading the word daily and steadfast in my relationship with God, anxiety can still have a gripping hold on my life. 

Sometimes it’s a low hum of energy that won’t let me settle. Other times, it is sheer terror coursing through my veins as if there is most certainly a monster under my bed. At times it is a sharp stomach ache that I can breathe through. But other times it’s a dull pain that feels more like dread.

I’m guessing that if I were in Mary’s position today, I would have a million questions. I would want the steps laid out A to Z. How will that really work? Would Joseph stay with me? Will people believe me? Will I have a nice place to give birth? Surely parenting will be easy, right? I can’t imagine that being the mother to the Son of the Most High God will have heartbreak. 

In order to prove God’s movement in the world and his supernatural powers, the angel told Mary that her cousin, Elizabeth, who was very old, was also pregnant. “Nothing is impossible with God.” Mary’s beautiful response was, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word.”

Mary and Zechariah’s (Elizabeth’s husband) responses to Gabriel are so vastly different, despite having similar experiences and similar messages. Zechariah asked Gabriel, “How can I know this?” Zechariah wanted certainty. Mary asked, “How can this be?” Gabriel was dropping information that defied the natural order of things, and Mary didn’t understand the science. Nothing like this had been done since the creation of the earth. For Zechariah’s disbelief, he was sentenced to nine months on mute. 

Mary, on the other hand, praises the Lord for the opportunity to serve Him by carrying this child. Her heart was ruled by peace that came from submission to God’s plans for her life. She didn’t need certainty, because she knew the One who was certain. She didn’t need a guarantee for her relationship or her standing or her future. Instead she had faith in the love, covering and protection of the One who favored her and chose her for this purpose. 

Father, You are the certain One and through you I can have peace. Set my mind on the truth of who you are, teaching me to be settled in your love and care for my life, so that no matter what you call me to do, I can have faith that you will guide me through it.