How Can This Be?

Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.

Luke 1:34

What is it with angel Gabriel and his many impossible missions though? Six months after Gabriel delivered God’s message to Zechariah (1:11-20), God sent the angel with another message, this time to a virgin named Mary. The angel Gabriel had also appeared to the prophet Daniel more than five hundred years earlier (Daniel 8:15-17; 9:21). Each time Gabriel appeared, he brought important but difficult messages from God. This time was no exception.

What I find more interesting is how Gabriel always starts nicely to calm the recipients down before he drops the bombshell. In Mary’s case, Gabriel appeared and said to her, “Greetings, favoured woman! The Lord is with you! But Mary didn’t fall for it. Verse 29 tells us that “…Mary tried to think what the angel could mean because she was confused and disturbed”

When Gabriel realised Mary wasn’t buying this, he came out straight and dropped the message “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favour with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus”. I like to imagine Mary laughing at this point, waiting for the part where Gabriel would say ‘it’s a prank!” but the laughter faded as quickly as it came when she realised Gabriel was serious. She immediately began to ask critical, probing questions to help him realise how impossible this message sounded. “Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”

Mary’s question was not unusual. Have you ever been asked to do something and asked HOW? Has the Lord ever asked you to do something and you asked HOW? I asked a similar question on campus in 2010 when God told me I was going to be the next President of our campus fellowship, how? I don’t know how to teach, I’m not a very organised person, and managing people wasn’t my strong point. I cried and cried for days, I just couldn’t understand why God wanted to expose all my weaknesses in this way. Guess what? From the day I became the president, an unusual administrative prowess came on me that I couldn’t account for. I guess Gabriel’s answer to Mary is the only way I can account for it, “…The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…” When the Holy Spirit comes in to fill a man, he becomes another man. I don’t know what assignment the Lord has placed on your heart and in your human ability it seems so impossible that you’re beginning to ask ‘How can this be? The answer is simple, allow the Holy Spirit to overshadow you and you will be amazed at what God can do through you.

PRAYER