The poet, Jan Richardson in her poem “Gabriel’s Annunciation,” captures for us the brief moment of hesitation that washes over the angel, Gabriel before he comes through the door and disturbs Mary’s life forever.
For a moment
I hesitated
on the threshold.
For the space
of a breath
I paused,
unwilling to disturb
her last ordinary moment,
knowing that the next step
would cleave her life:
that this day
would slice her story
in two,
dividing all the days before
from all the ones
to come.
In the poem the poet captures that beautiful and awful moment before Gabriel announces that Mary will conceive and bear a son, to be named Jesus. The moment is beautiful because this teenage girl from a nowhere town is chosen to carry the savior in her arms and bring him to the world. It is awful because her life will be forever changed as she learns what saving the world means: insults hurled at her child, watching anguish wash across his face, and aches of helplessness well up in her heart as her baby suffers right before her eyes on a cross.
You can understand Gabriel’s hesitation to make his announcement as imagined in the poem. How does she take a step forward into that future? How do any of us take a step forward when the future looks impossible?
So, we can forgive Mary when she is fearful and perplexed by Gabriel’s message. We can understand Mary when she is baffled and overwhelmed by the message that Jesus will be great, the Son of the Most High, and that his kingdom there will have no end.
“How can this be, since I am a virgin?” she asks, still unable to grasp the wonderful and awful future laid out before her (Luke 1:34).
How does she take a step forward into that future? How do any of us take a step forward when the future looms uncertain, devastating, and impossible?
The teen sat in the waiting room of the hospital staring at the door of the Intensive Care Unit. She could not will herself to stand up and go through the door. How could she stare at the destroyed face of the father whose face she traced with her fingers since a baby? How could she even think about the life of hardship that they would now face after the accident? She felt utterly alone as she stared at the door, unable to even try to stare him in the eye and face their uncertain future.
She was like Mary, staring at an uncertain future, full of questions. At the same time, she was not like Mary. Mary said, “Yes.” Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” as she stared at her doorway to the future. The teen stared at the door of the ICU, unable to move.
How did Mary do that? How did Mary take that first step into a future full of both wonder and terror? Maybe, she was simply a strong, strong girl. Maybe, she had some sort of mental fortitude that most of us lack. Or, maybe the Bible says that God gave her a gift.
A close look at the text will reveal that this gift from God is not some super-human ability to be strong and make it through. A close look at the text shows that she was given a much more ordinary gift.
Immediately before Mary brings herself to say “yes” to God’s future, Gabriel announces this gift from God, “And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:36-37).
Mary will not undertake her first pregnancy alone. The Lord does not allow Mary to face this wonderful and awful future alone. God has given the gift of Elizabeth; the gift of someone else with whom she can walk, as they both enter into the impossible ways of the Lord. This is the way God works.
In the beginning of time God looked at the first human and said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner” (Genesis 2:18). So, God created him a partner so that he would not have to step into the future alone. This is the way God works.
When Jesus sent out the Apostles to do wonders and deeds in his name, the Bible says, “the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town” (Luke 10:1). Jesus sent them out in twos. God gave them each the gift of someone else as they faced their futures. This is the way God works.
And as Jesus hung on the cross, looking at the one who said “yes” to him, his Mother, the Bible says that Jesus said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” referring to the beloved disciple. Then the Bible says that he said to the disciple, “’Here is your mother.’ And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home” (John 19:26-27). Once again, God gave the gift of someone else. This is the way God works.
I like how the New Living Translation of the Bible translates 1 Corinthians 12:7 for us: “A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.” We are made for each other. It is not good that we be alone. We are gifts from God to one another so that we do not need to face our futures alone. This is the way God works.
Of course, the temptation is to “go it alone.” The temptation is to not want to bother others. The temptation is to be strong and go it alone, even though God never designed us that way.
Once while picking up fallen branches on our property, Isaac, who was very little at the time, decided that he was going to move this huge branch that had fallen across one of our trails all by himself. “I can do it Daddy!” he exclaimed when I reached down to help. So, he grabbed the branch that was ten times his size, bent his little knees, and tried unsuccessfully to pull the thing up into the air.
“If you need help, I am here,” I reiterated.
“I can do it!” he retorted.
He tried again and failed again. He grabbed a small stick and started smacking the tree and cussing it out with the toddler version of cuss words. “You stupid tree!”
“You do not have to do this alone,” I said to Isaac. “We can move it together.” And, so we did.
“You do not have to do this alone, we can do it together” the teen heard as she sat staring at the door leading into the ICU. It was her friend from school. Somehow, the friend knew that she had to be there for the teen. Somehow, the friend knew that the teen would not be able to do it alone. Somehow God had created for the teen a partner for just this moment.
“Give me your hand,” she said to the teen. And, together, the two walked through the ICU doors, into an impossible future which suddenly became more possible with God’s gift of one another.
That is how God works. Since the beginning of time we were given the gift of one another. And, you are no different. Like Mary, stepping into your future is not as impossible when given the gift of someone else. God gives us the gift of one another, and that is not a truth to be taken lightly or taken for granted. It is a truth, a gift from God, that stems from the beginning of time with the creation of Adam and Eve, a gift that helped Mary take her first steps into her future, a gift that got the disciples through the death of Jesus until his resurrection and reappearance, and a gift that will get you through your future as well. God’s Holy Spirit is a gift that draws us together through the good and the bad.
One last thing: the Bible says that the Holy Spirit is our Paraclete. You might not know the Greek word Paraclete, but it literally means, “the one called to the side of another” or “the one who walks beside.” As you stare at the door to your uncertain future, know that God has given the gift of God’s holy presence. Through the Holy Spirit, we are given the gift of one who walks beside. Surrounded by Christ’s Spirit and Christ’s people maybe you too can look at your uncertain future and answer, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38).
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