And God Said...

And the angel answered and said to her,

"The Holy Spirit will come upon you,

and the power of the Highest will overshadow you;

therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born

will be called the Son of God."

Luke 1:35

God says, thus and so.

Man says, how so?

God says, because I say so.

How complicated is that? We say we believe in an omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent God, a Supreme, Divine, Sovereign Lord who can do anything, who knows everything, and is everywhere present all the time. But sometimes I think we treat that as simply superficial knowledge.

I know Who God is and What God does, but when I'm in trouble, I'm calling a lawyer. When I'm sick, I'm calling a doctor. When I'm in need, I'm calling a banker. When things get really bad, I might call the pastor.

But why don't we call on God?

I love Mary's response to the angel. When he informs her of her impending pregnancy, her response is, "Wow! How is that going to happen? My mom had the talk with me, and she told me that dancing causes pregnancy! I've never even been to a dance. How can this be?"

Do you think the angel smiled encouragingly? Or might he have rolled his eyes in just a bit of exasperation? They were talking about the God who delivered Israel from Egypt with ten plagues, parted the waters and dried up the bottom of the Red Sea for them to pass over safely, nourished them for forty years in the wilderness with cool, clear water from a rock, fresh bread baked in heaven's ovens, and quail that flew into camp on the wind, and then drove out their enemies before them so that they could possess the land of their inheritance.

And still today, there are questions about this virgin birth. How is this possible? How can such a thing be? Never forget that the God who formed the womb was the God over the womb that would form Him. God who fashioned man out the dust of the earth and fashioned woman from man's rib was more than able to cause a cell the size of the head of pin to begin to spontaneously divide. The prophets proclaimed that God formed them in the inward parts of their mother. Why is it so hard to believe that God did the same to Jesus?

The girl asked, "How can this be?"

And the angel replied, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The Power of the Highest will overshadow you." Too often, we want to know the how beyond the obvious, but the obvious is the how! The virgin was going to conceive because that was the action that God had designed. No other explanation should be necessary. The conception was done through the presence of the Holy Ghost and the power of the Almighty.

And one more thing, Mary. You are still thinking in the natural. You wonder how you can conceive when you've never known a man. We aren't talking about a natural child here. We are talking about a supernatural child, a holy child, the child who will be born and called The Son of God.