Because You're Worth It Luke 1:26-28

“In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:26-28) NIV

Random Thoughts:

God works in the most unimaginable places, times and people. In all of human history He chose to send Gabriel to the moment just before Israel’s final defeat as a backwater country in the third world of the Roman Empire and to a unwed teenager in a village notorious for being on the wrong side of the proverbial “tracks”. To the mind of those awaiting a messiah to restore Israel to it’s place among the nations of the world, it would all seem wrong. Even ridiculous.

And to the lowest of the low--an unmarried girl with no status in her culture--the angel’s appearance could not have seemed more out of place. Then Gabriel uttered the surprising words, “you who are highly favored, the Lord is with you.” What the world did not see or value, God did. More wonderful still is the knowledge that He continues to see and value what the world cannot--even to the very last one of us He calls Son or Daughter.

We are all invited, pursued by God from the time we are small, and assured by Him as we enter a relationship with Him that we, too, are precious. No matter our social standing, our age or place in time or purpose His love for us as our Father becomes the foundation of our identity. His promise to be with us becomes our assurance that our purpose to live for Him is not in vain. 

Question:

To what things do you tend to turn to for significance and self-worth? How does God’s view of you change that?

Journal Response:

I think it must be a female thing. Guys just seem to naturally brim with confidence; if there’s a problem, it’s somebody else’s fault. Really. They aren’t even bluffing. I on the other hand, at the first sign of a mix-up, will be the first to volunteer myself for the firing squad. After a life’s trail littered with the wreckage of missed appointments (wrong times, wrong dates or wrong places) to say nothing of the well-intentioned but mis-applied efforts of projects big and small, it’s probably natural that confidence would be casualty Numero Uno.  And probably the biggest reason why I still look for my worth in attaining that ever-illusive thing of getting things right. 

Being occasionally humbled and embarrassed has it’s good side, however. Just this week I took my kids to meet my husband at a favorite Chinese restaurant. As we sat down at the table and began to look at our menus, my phone rang. My husband’s disembodied voice asked where we were. Apparently, he was waiting for us at another restaurant across town. I made my excuses to the server (much to the dismay of my humiliated children) to try again.

Like a young girl in a backwater country in a town on the wrong side of the tracks with nothing to recommend her accept--well, nothing--it makes God’s tremendous offer of love and affirmation of worth that much more astounding. I don’t need a cosmetic product to tell me “I’m worth it”, a bank account to tell me that I’m rich or a magazine-perfect house to tell me I’m acceptable. The cross tells me I am worth it and through it, He offers me riches this world cannot begin to understand. Even more amazingly, He accepts me as I am. Mary must have marveled at that message too the first time she heard it. If she’s anything like me, she would need to hear it many times over.