Verse of the week

'"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her.' Luke 1:38

Continuing with the Virgin Birth, this verse has really challenged me since I preached on it last Sunday...here's Mary, who's just been told by Gabriel she's pregnant. It's unlikely people will believe the story of how she's pregnant ('It's God's kid, honest!') - so she faces losing her fiance, possibly being stoned to death for adultery, certainly being shunned and whispered about for the rest of her life. All her hopes and plans and dreams as a teenage girl are over - yet this is how she replies. She's God's servant, and she's prepared to fit in with his plans whatever the cost.
We probably won't meet an angel this week, we certainly won't be told we'll be God the Son's earthly parent; but we will as Christians be called upon to talk about Jesus at the risk of rejection, be called to behave differently to our friends, be called to give things up in order to live Jesus' way. Will we answer as Mary did? When it's tough to follow God's plan and not our own, will we say to ourselves; 'I am the Lord's servant (and not the other way around). May it be to me as he has said (and not as I want)'. Quite a challenge!