Selfies.
We see them constantly! Although the term is fairly new, the concept behind them is as old as time. Basically a selfie cries for attention. . . . on yourself. It says “Hey! Look at me! Do you see me?” The focus is obvious, me, me, ME.
Now personally, I am not a fan of selfies. . . . I don’t take them, that is just my personal preference. And please, I am not saying that just because you enjoy taking a selfie, you are selfish and self focused, but the truth is, we live in a world that encourages us to focus on ourselves. To focus on what is good for us, what will make us happy. But there are always those that defy the times and try to focus on others even if it is at great cost to themselves.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, was just such a woman.
Now, historically it is believed that Mary was around 14 years old when the angel Gabriel visited her with the news that she was to become the mother of Jesus. 14! Can you even imagine?!?! Now granted 14 then was not quite the same as 14 now, but regardless, it is still young. You can read the story in Luke Chapter 1. But basically it tells us that Mary lived in Nazareth and was pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, who was a descendant of David. The angel Gabriel appears to Mary and tells her that The Holy Spirit is going to come upon her and she will become pregnant and give birth to a baby boy who will be the Son of God, the Messiah of the world, the King of Kings whose kingdom will never end.
Now as I mentioned above, things then were not the same as things are now. Mary, I am sure, knew what this could mean for her. Here she was a young girl, engaged to be married, and she was going to be pregnant. This would certainly mean disgrace for her and her family, and truthfully, could literally have meant death for her.
We read in the first chapter of the Gospel of Matthew that Joseph was an honorable man so when he found out, he planned to divorce Mary quietly so as not to bring public disgrace to her. Of course, Mary really had no way of knowing how Joseph was going to respond at that moment when Gabriel was telling all of this to her.
So we have a 14-year-old girl, pledged to be married to a man who is faithful to the law, and she finds out that she is going to become pregnant by The Holy Spirit. Now I don’t know about you, but if that was me, I don’t think I would be too overjoyed about how this was going to affect my life. I think I would have had a million reasons why this was a bad idea going through my mind. I mean my life could be over, I would be disgraced and shunned, my husband to be would surely not want me anymore, why on earth would I want this!
However Mary, she was different. In faith, she responds to the angel by saying “I am the Lord’s servant, May your word to me be fulfilled.” Luke 1:38
“I am the Lord’s servant.”
Wow, talk about selfless, talk about faith, talk about being in defiance of the world around you. I don’t know how you feel when you read that, but me, I feel challenged. I feel like this is the kind of woman I want to be. This is the kind of woman I am trying to be. As things have taken place in my life, and God has led me to do the tough thing, to go against the flow, to stand for what He is telling me rather than falling into the patterns of this world, I want to be obedient and in faith say, “I am the Lord’s servant.”
After all, this is what we are called to do, to shine a light in the darkness, to be ladies in defiance of this “selfie” world and humbly say, “I am the Lord’s servant.”
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