The Gift Of Me.

THE GIFT OF ME.

LUKE 1:26-38.

The scripture that I have read is not new to us. I would imagine that most of us could tell the story of the birth of Jesus from our hearts. We all know about Mary that she is the mother of the Lord Jesus and we all know about the angel Gabriel who came to Mary to inform her that she was chosen by God the be the Mother of the baby Jesus. We know that Gabriel told Mary that when she had the baby she was to call him by the name of Jesus. I know that this story is not new to us but I want look at the interaction between Mary and Gabriel. Mary is about 14 years old and she understands the facts of life so she asks Gabriel how is all this going to happen. Gabriel replied to Mary’s question was: The Holy Spirit would come upon her and the power of the most high would over shadow her and for that reason the Holy offspring shall be called the Son of God.

This is what Christmas is about; God came to earth wrapped in a human body. I think some of the things that we struggle with about what God did are how God gave us the gift of His son who was born in a smelly stable in Bethlehem. Often at Christmas time we hear that the Wise men were the first to give gifts at the first Christmas. The truth of the matter is that the very first gift came from God and that gift is Jesus Christ. The second gift came from Mary. Look at the Scripture again for a moment.

When Mary heard Gabriel word’s her amazement was changed to complete faith in her God. Listen to Mary’s words.

Behold the bondslave of the Lord; be it done unto me according to the word of God.

Did you notice the change that came from Mary? She is no longer trouble or amazed by what is going to happen. She responds in complete faith to the message that came from Gabriel. As we read these words of Mary I believe that her words would bring a smile to the face of God because she is committed to whatever god wants for her even though she has no idea of what her life is going to be like.

Do you remember the first gift that you got; a gift that when Christmas come along that gift comes to your mind. Mary’s gift was the gift of herself to her Lord. We sing about the gifts that the wisemen gave to the Lord and they were great gifts. If you were to ask the Lord which gifts did he like the best, I believe that there wouldn’t be a second of hesitation and the Lord would say that Mary’s gift touched his heart a whole lot more. I imagine that you are wondering why is Mary’s gift so great.

Mary’s gift touched the heart of God because she was giving herself to the purpose of God.

Mary didn’t think about what might or might not happen to her life by this decision. All she knew was that God was able to make something possible happen in her life that the world would think was impossible. Faith in the Lord can make the impossible become possible. If the Lord sent Gabriel into our lives with a request for something that seen impossible to us; but if we did it; we would be fulfilling the Lord’s purpose for our lives, what would be our answer. What if Jesus was asking you to give away your home and move someplace to open a place for unwed mothers and their children? What would your answer be? Would we have to think about it, would we get all our friends together and tell them or would we figure that we are just dreaming. Would we complain to God about this impossible thing that God has asked us to do? I think that for a lot of Christians and non Christians that when we start to think about what the Lord wants we can’t believe that Jesus would ask us to do something like that. A lot of Christians when they are asked by the lord, they begin to think about their past life and they say to themselves that there is no way the Lord could use someone like them to accomplish the will of God. I believe that for many Christians the reason why they don’t accomplish what the Lord wants from them is because they think that because of their past life that the Lord just coundn’t use them.

I want you to notice that Mary didn’t say to the angel that she would do what the lord wants after she gets her life in order.