Luke 1:26-28
In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed[a] to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
And the angel answered her, “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. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.
Angels, stars of wonder, shepherds, kings, and a virgin. (That’s awkward.) Christmas hymns are filled with images we have come to treasure in our advent traditions—and then we have that last one. A virgin. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this season is likely the only time we invite our little children to sing about sexuality. Why is that? Why am I promoting my 6 year old belting out the words “offspring of a virgin’s womb”?
If you don’t know how babies are made, close your browser window and go call your mom and dad. If you do know, then you understand the fact that pregnancy and virginity don’t go together. In fact, it is impossible by definition to have one and have the other too. Despite the fact that Mary lived in pre-Google times, she knew that too, leading her to respond to the angel Gabriel’s mind-blowing announcement with a question, something to the effect of, “I hear you, and I want to believe you, but I don’t understand because that’s impossible. How can this be true?”
Gabriel responds as a faithful ambassador of the King he faithfully serves, answering her question of how—through the limitless power of the Most High coming specifically to her and filling her not only in a spiritual way but in a physical one that has never happened before—and giving her the news that He’s working a miracle in her friend Elizabeth too. His last words to her before he leaves are very simply these: “for nothing will be impossible with God.”
That’s why we welcome both my 6-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son alike to sing about a virgin and why millions of people have before us. We want our children to know the God of the impossible. We want them to know Him because we are surrounded by impossible. We face the impossible together as a family—like finding a family for a child without one and like living on full support to do what we do. And, I know they face the impossible everyday in little ways that are big ways to them. All those impossibles demand a response, one that may not be all that unlike Mary’s initial response that night to her impossible. “I want to believe that God will do something big here, but I don’t understand how that’s possible. There’s no way.” When they find themselves in that place—and when I find myself there—may the words of all those familiar songs come to mind. He’s not only able to do the impossible; He masters in the impossible. He calls into existence the things that do not yet exist (Romans 4:17). We don’t need to know how; we likely wouldn’t be able to comprehend it anyway. We only need to know He does the impossible, that we are never stuck where we are, that we are never ever without hope so that we can say, “I am yours. It’s in your hands, Lord. And, in your hands is the only place I want to be. Keep me there as you do what only you can do.”
