Many of the women in Jesus' lineage were unlikely candidates. Here's the most well-known example:
Mary… Luke 1-2
A
pregnant teenager, a wild story that no one believed, and a bewildered fiancé.
There was nothing unique about Mary’s situation to all who knew her. So why was
this unplanned pregnancy any different from a million others? Some people argue
that it wasn’t. They claim that the idea of Jesus’s virgin birth was fabricated
years later. However, those who assert that haven’t flipped a few pages back in
their Bibles to the prophecies given hundreds of years earlier that describe
the coming Messiah. He would be:
born of a virgin (Is.7:14),
born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2), flee to Egypt (Hosea 11:1), and survive infanticide (Jer. 31:15).
Mary’s
role in all this was surprisingly small. Perhaps one reason God chose her was
that she was willing to stay in the shadows, obey no matter what, and endure
the heartache that would be her lot as mother of the Messiah. Mothers often
find it difficult to stay a safe distance from an adult child’s life. They want
to protect, advise, lecture, and make certain nothing bad happens to them. But
we learn from Mary how to surrender ourselves and our children to the plan of
God. Even when it means that we or our children will suffer, we can entrust our
families into the hands of the Creator as He works in their lives.
Final
Thought: Are you clinging too tightly to your children, your
parents, or close friends? It’s time to let go and trust.
