Be Still And Know

Luke 1:28-30 Gabriel appeared to Mary and said, “Greetings, favoured woman! The Lord is with you!” Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favour with God!” Fear is often mentioned in the accounts leading up to Jesus’ birth. John the Baptist’s father, Zechariah, was told not to be afraid when Gabriel met with him. The same happened when the angel met with Mary. Joseph too was told not to be afraid when he was informed of Mary’s surprise pregnancy. For all of them, what was happening in their lives was an astonishing surprise. For John the Baptist’s mother, Elizabeth, the surprise was that she was well past child-bearing years; for Mary it was because she had never had sexual intercourse. All that was happening was totally miraculous, because we all tend to live with the assumption that only ordinary things will happen in life. This first chapter of Luke challenges our thinking in all sorts of ways. Firstly, it r