How Will This Be?

Mary was a young woman going about her normal life in Nazareth. She was betrothed to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. She had no idea that a heavenly messenger was about to change the calm of her ordinary life.

“Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” he announced.

Mary was troubled by his greeting. She may have thought, “What could he possibly mean? Why am I favored? Why is the Lord saying He is with me? Why is this angel here?”

Before she could even ask her questions, Gabriel answered her uncertainty:
“Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.”

And then Gabriel continued with something enormous.

She would give birth to a son and call His name Jesus. He would be called the Son of the Most High. God would give Him the throne of David. He would reign forever, and His kingdom would have no end.

The promise the people of Israel had waited generations to see fulfilled was suddenly being spoken into Mary’s ordinary life in Nazareth. Now Gabriel was telling her that she would bear the long-promised King. She listened to the incredible announcement and asked the obvious question:
“How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

She did not understand how this could happen.

Gabriel answered her, explaining the divine mystery. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.”

He even shared news of her relative Elizabeth. The woman who had been called barren was now six months pregnant.

And then comes the answer beneath all the answers:

“For nothing will be impossible with God.”
Mary had no idea what was coming next. She didn’t know how Joseph would react, what the neighbors would say, or what it would really take to raise this holy child God had entrusted to her.
But she knew something greater.
God is able.
And so she answered:
“Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”
She moved from troubled questioning to surrendered trust.

Not because every question had been answered.
Not because the road ahead had suddenly become clear.
But because she had heard who God was and what God could do.

Sometimes we stand in a similar place. We may know what God has said, yet we cannot imagine how He will accomplish it. We cannot see how the circumstances around us will unfold or where the road will lead.

Faith does not always say, Now I understand.
Sometimes faith simply says,
I do not understand how, but I know You are able. Let it be according to Your word.

Fear not.
God is able.
And you can entrust yourself to what He is doing even when you cannot understand how.

FEAR NOT when you cannot understand how.
BECAUSE GOD IS able.