Mary Believed He Was Enough

Great jobs come with great benefits. Isn’t that how it works? Medical, Dental and a matching 401k? Or in the case of some of our favorite Biblical heroes, if you work for the Big Fella, aren’t you granted the likes of leadership, land, wisdom, and riches? God has been known to really pull out all the stops for those who serve him in the most special of roles.

But sometimes, when God’s got a special job for you, it doesn’t come with an enticing benefit package. Take Mary, for example. Her job offer started when a blindingly shiny angelic messenger announced, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you!” We all know that Mary accepted with that admirable, “let it be with me” line. But what we don’t know is what this young Jewish girl expected might become of her life as she raised the Son of God. I rather wonder if there wasn’t a small part of Mary that anticipated the “leadership, land, wisdom and riches” of her most revered ancestors. I mean, if YOU were God, with all eternity’s resources at your fingertips, wouldn’t you go out of your way to take care of your Son’s Mom?

Whatever it was that Mary expected, what she got was this: an out-of-wedlock pregnancy that almost cost her dignity, an all-natural child birth experience with the odor of farm animals to help keep her focused, a life of humble means married to the local carpenter, and many years of child-rearing that were so ordinary no one chose to write about them (Of course, except that one time when she lost God’s kid at the festival … thanks for documenting THAT). And let’s not forget the worst…she had to watch her son die in the most unbelievable manner.

So why did Mary accept the job? Simply put, Mary got Jesus.

No land. No leadership. No wisdom. No riches. Just Jesus.

As it turns out, the shiny messenger mentioned this perk when he spelled out Mary’s benefit package in the beginning: “Mary, you have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son. His name will be Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

Did you catch that? No land. No leadership. No wisdom. No riches. Just Jesus.

Hey reader! Guess what? You have found favor with God! You get Jesus.

You get Jesus.