Mary was essentially told of her supernatural departure from normal life in Luke 1:26-38. She had no warning of any kind and no say in it. She had been chosen for the singular honor of being the mother of our Lord, but no one knew what that would look like in practical terms. In the face of uncertainty, and fear, she responds by surrendering her plan for her life and adopting God’s plan.
Gabriel interrupted Mary’s life with pretty stellar news, but oftentimes, our plans are interrupted by less wonderful news. Sometimes the Lord has us go through some really hard stuff that is soundly bad from our perspective, stuff we’d never choose for ourselves. Stuff that we couldn’t imagine being redeemable. No finer example of this can be found than Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. He knew the depths of suffering the cross would entail yet he responded, “your will be done.” The physical torment of the cross was only dwarfed by the anguish of the momentary separation of the timeless trinity as Jesus became sin for us.
Jesus, as we know, defeated sin and death and rose triumphantly and after his ascension, God gave him every honor and the highest name. He presently sits at the right hand of God forevermore. He accomplished nothing less than our blessed salvation in this age of grace. God is good! Good enough to trust, nay, even anticipate what he’s got planned for us. When hard things come, that means the ride has begun and the end will certainly justify any present ordeals we may be in.
Mary relinquishes her own control of her life and responds, “may it be.” She knew her God. She had an accurate idea of God’s character and was confident He would bring about something better than she could have. Let’s strive to know the same goodness of God so that when our plans are hijacked, we can know it will be for the better. Then we can also respond, “Let it be”
Jonathan Duncan