Unmet Expectations

Mary’s life before the angel’s visit was likely filled with hopes just like ours—plans for marriage, family, and a future shaped by her community’s traditions. When the angel Gabriel told her she would conceive a child by the Holy Spirit, it disrupted everything she thought she knew, but her immediate response was belief and obedience.

I’ve never had an angel appear to me, but I have experienced God coming near. I’ve felt His presence- I’ve had a word from God, I’ve known His voice, I’ve heard His word speak to me so clearly. I have believed God for promises.

Have you heard from God and believed Him, but walking out that belief isn’t quite what you imagined?

We talk about the promise God gave to Mary, and how she believed Him but we don't often talk about how she kept believing. We don't often look at the long walk of obedience in Mary's life after the promise was given. I don’t think that God’s plans were what Mary expected, and here is where I really identify with Mary.  

We tend to quickly skip over the circumstances that Mary’s belief ushered in. As her belly grew, so did the rumors. I imagine that, like me, you’ve heard lots of rumors. You know how easy it is to fill in the blanks.

Trusting God could have cost Mary the man I believe she loved. Joseph could easily have decided to end their engagement and left her a single mother. He didn't, but both of them had to live their lives being misunderstood by many. I don’t know that a lot of people believed them. The virgin birth is a wild story.

I don’t know about you, but I hate being misunderstood.

I’ve recently had to be okay with being misunderstood to walk in obedience, and it has proved to be excruciating. It’s revealed how much I rest on the approval of man.

What about when Simeon told Mary in Luke 2:35 at Jesus dedication in the temple that a sword would pierce through her soul also.

What must Mary have feared that that meant?

How much sleep did she lose over that one?

Fast forward to expectations of how Jesus would save the world. The popular belief was that Messiah would be like David; he would defeat Rome and usher in prosperity. I’m pretty sure that she didn’t think it would involve a Roman cross. As the mother of sons, it is painful to really picture Mary watching her son die a gruesome death and hold onto her faith that what God had told her was true.

God’s plans haven’t always or even often matched my expectations. You too?

Like Mary must have, I’ve often wondered if I heard wrong.

Did I get the directions correctly, or am I just holding the map upside down because this doesn’t look right?

Mary never got the whole story that we have before she told God in Luke 1:38, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your Word.”

She was willing before she knew the whole plan.

I’m struggling with it right now. I want the whole story. I want to know how things are going to work out. I wish I could talk to Mary and learn from her.

How do we navigate this tension in life where My expectations and God’s blessings don’t look like they line up?

The best blessings in my life has also been the hardest things.

Nothing in my life has taught me more about God than marriage and children. Walking out these blessings of long obedience has shaped me. There is also nothing that has made me cry more tears than those two things. Marriage reveals my heart in painful ways. Motherhood is beautiful and brutal all at the same time.

when Gabriel first came to Mary he told her, “The Lord is with you, do not be afraid you have found favor with God”(Luke 1:28).

God was with her; He would stay.

Things are not always or even often going to work out the way I want.

God is with me. He will stay.

God is with you. He will stay.

I struggle with this EVERY day. For crying out loud, I’m female. Of course, I think my ideas are better.The fact that God was with Mary also meant she was with Him. She experienced it all in the front seat.

Mary was with Him when He died but that also gave her the joy of being with Him when He rose again. She got to not just see salvation come but feel and touch it. She was with Him, so she got to participate in the greatest story.

God is with us; will we choose to be with Him?

Will we choose the gift of participation…even when we don’t understand what’s coming?

Will we say with Mary, I am God’s servant let it be to me according to Your word?

Christmas reminds our heart that He came for us in the most unexpected way, then He saved us in the most unexpected way. He will keep showing up in our daily life in the most unexpected way when we walk in obedience, believing the promise in obedience even when it's not our expectation.