Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Luke 1:28 ... Greetings, you who are highly favored!
HIGHLY FAVORED!
That's what the angel said, but it must have taken a lot of nerve. Mary was poor, and now she would have another mouth to feed. Plus she would have to tell Joseph, her fiance, that she was going to have a baby whose father he would not be.
Highly favored? Mary was an insignificant young girl in the rough-and-tumble little town of Nazareth on the caravan route, way up there in backwoods Galilee. I wonder if Mary ever thought to herself, "What difference does it make whether I live or die? What difference would it make in the world if I were gone tomorrow?" She may never have thought that way, but many today think that way without having to carry half of her troubles.
Even her name tells the same story. Mary's name means "bitterness." So it must have been startling to her to hear that she was highly-favored. Notice, it was not the angel's appearance that troubled her, but his words.
Would you be startled to hear that you are highly-favored? Perhaps we would be startled that God would care so much about us. Perhaps some would be surprised that He even knew we existed. But the Good News is that if Gabriel came to us today, he could greet us in the same way he greeted Mary: "Hail, highly-favored one! God is with you." And he could greet us that way not because we live in a country with one of the highest standards of living, but because we have a Savior who traded His standard of living for ours.
We are rich, for He was poor;
Is not this a wonder?
Therefore praise God evermore
Here on earth and yonder.
(The Lutheran Hymnal, 97:3)
