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Teatime Tuesday (Well Lived Book)
What does it mean? “Loving God with our whole heart.”
Mary shows us a heart given to God.
“Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:28)
Oh, how I wish the words the angel said expressed how God felt about me! Would God see me as the kind of woman He would choose now to mother the most high God? By what means did she find favor, in the hidden moments of her life?
Mary lived in a tiny, obscure village amidst a humdrum life. Wheat was ground, bread was pounded out on wooden tables, crumbs were swept from the floor, children lovingly tended, mother and father presided over the home, the Shema was listened to every day over shared family meals, the Sabbath was kept. Mary lived in invisibility in the moments of an ordinary, obscure life, as far as anyone around her knew. And yet, in the quiet, faithful living of her life, God noticed her. She found favor, pleased His heart.
God always sees even when no one else is noticing.
Imagine being greeted by an angel, in the midst of a normal day, when no one else knew, “Hail favored one.”
What would he find you doing? Believing?
“Mary, do not be afraid, for you have found favor with God.”
Really? She did not have a college degree, a ministry position, or a title. She had never published a book or even spoken in the synagogue. Yet, in the midst of her quiet life, she had found favor with God.
We don't know every detail of Mary's life. The Bible doesn't tell us exactly why He chose her. But there are clues. The mother of Jesus would require a tenacious, engaged faith as in the Magnificat. As his mother, her own life would be in danger. Jesus would be pursued by a crazy king. At every point, people would cast doubt on her irregular, fantastical story.
Like Mary, God is looking for our heart-love for Him, not our perfection. Amid invisibility, times when no one sees or knows what is going on in our lives: stresses from challenging children, loneliness of a struggling marriage, cleaning up one more mess amidst the crumbs of our life, God sees us. It is in these places where “loving God with our whole heart” is revealed.