Carrying a mystery to term

“For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment.” (Luke 1:37, Amplified Bible, Classic Edition)

The mystery both enfolded by and enfolding the Christmas season never really ends. It didn’t even begin that first Christmas. It simply revealed itself to us: to all and any who could see or hear, listen—who had ‘eyes to see’ and ‘ears to hear’—in the eons to come.

In Mary’s encounter with the angel and then with the Holy Spirit those 2,000-plus years ago, the divine seed was planted. Young Mary treasured and wondered at the words spoken to her, and her body nurtured the precious ‘Word’ to term. A mysterious Word, existing since the beginning of time, wrapped in a baby and born into a world so already full of its own words, wonder, beauty and noise—that hearing, seeing, the capital-W Word and Wonder beyond and behind it can be nigh on impossible.

Imagine carrying and giving birth to a mystery. In a way every mother does, but can you imagine carrying and giving birth to a world-changing mystery that both pre-existed you, life itself, and contained the answers of time and eternity? Completely impossible to comprehend, and that’s the point. Mary embraced what she did not understand, nurtured and treasured it. The holy seed came to term and the world would never be the same.

Have you ever had an inexplicable, dramatic encounter with holiness, with God? By its very nature you can’t explain it to anyone else, but like Mary, you can treasure and nurture it. Trust that the divine seed will come to term.

People who hold onto and nurture what God has said to them or allowed them to experience—even though they may not understand it—carry the fruit of the revelation from God that says: ‘Nothing will be impossible with God.’ That’s the commonly translated version of the angel’s words to young Mary when she wondered aloud how on earth she could give birth. A more accurate translation from the Greek would be more like ‘no freshly spoken word of God will ever come to you that does not contain the ability to perform itself.’ What an astonishing gift!