Mary was a godly young lady, probably about 14 years old, when she was told she was miraculously going to conceive and bear a baby who would be the Saviour of mankind. She didn’t have a teenage tantrum about her life being ruined. She didn’t argue with the angel who told her. She simply replied, “Behold the handmaiden of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).
The faithfulness of a youthful Jewish girl from a humble village changed the course of the world. She lived through gossip, suspicion, hardship, fear, heartache and sorrow so that God could bring us our Messiah. She would have to have been the most wonderful woman who ever lived, wouldn’t you think?
Not quite. Jesus held His mother in the utmost of respect, but look at this.
“While He (Jesus) was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. Then one said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You.”
But He answered and said to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?”
And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.” (Matt. 12:46-50).
Jesus is telling us that when we do what God desires, we are in the same class as His mother! Jesus has enlarged His family to include us and He wants us to share in the blessings that God has prepared before the foundation of the world for ALL who love Him. Can you believe the kindness of God and the exceeding riches of His grace to offer us such a gift?
“But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Eph. 2:4-8).
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