And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. 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.”And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” -Luke 1:30-34
Mary was not prepared for what God had planned for her. Not only in the sense of being chosen to carry the Messiah, but she was unprepared for pregnancy of any kind at this point in her life. Mary was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph. This was not in her plans.
God’s ways are not our ways. We see this explicitly throughout the Bible. God even tells us this Himself in Isaiah 55:8-9:
“‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’”
Were God’s plans for Mary’s life better than the plans she had made for herself? At the time, she must have had many thoughts and emotions about the direction her life was now taking. When our lives take a direction we didn’t choose for ourselves, we must remember that we are children of a Father who loves us. Not only are His thoughts not the same as our own, they are higher. They are perfect.
Certainly there are things that do not go as we’d hoped they might in our lives. When calamity strikes or we experience loss and heartache, His Spirit brings comfort in the midst of our suffering. This is a result of experiencing a broken and fallen world. However, there are times when God chooses to intervene in the path we may have set out for ourselves.
It is in these moments that we must decide to trust Him.
Mary’s response to God’s new plan for her life was not without questions. Mary admitted feeling unworthy of God’s calling in her life. She openly asked the angel how this could even be possible! But ultimately, Mary chose to surrender her life to God, trusting that His way was good because He is good.
When God changes the plans you had set out for yourself, remember Mary. Remember the heart of God that is for you and not against you. Remember that even when we may feel unprepared or ill-equipped for the path God has set before us, He promises that He has given us everything we need for the life He has called us to.
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