This morning Kristi continued our series as we stared together at the mother of Jesus and the idea of motherhood to see how this binds us together with Jesus in our shared humanity. In the Advent story, we see an angel go to Mary and tell her that she will conceive and bear a son. Mary then asks the angel a question, "How?" While on the surface it seems as though Mary is asking a purely practical question of how this will be, a deeper question also seems possible. This is the first glimpse we get of Mary stepping into motherhood as she wonders “How can this be? And how can this be that I am enough?"
The angel Gabriel responds to Mary’s question of “how” with words that answer both the logistical and heart perspectives. The conception will take place through the Holy Spirit coming upon Mary. The promise of the Most High overshadowing Mary brings the answer her heart needs to hear. Through Gabriel, God reassures Mary that His power will overshadow her. God will hover. God will protect. Mary doesn’t have to be enough, because God is more than enough.
When we ask the question "Are we enough?," our Heavenly Father provides His gentle response that, “no, we are not enough.” There is a second part to this answer that we cannot miss and we see it throughout scripture. We do not have to be, nor were we created to be enough on our own. We need our Father. We need our Savior. We need His Holy Spirit, because He is more than enough for all our needs. That means all of the fear, striving, wondering, hiding, pretending, and avoiding can all be brought to the feet of Jesus and left there. In return we can take up the knowledge that His grace is sufficient, His power is perfected in our weakness, and we acknowledge that through the humanity of a teenage mom, God revealed himself as our all-sufficient shepherd, the one who is more than enough.
POWERED BY BLUBRRY
