Every Christmas season, I can’t help but think about Mary. When the angel visited her and told her that she had been chosen to give birth to God’s son, she must have experienced a roller coaster of emotions. She was honored to be chosen but horrified to tell Joseph and her parents.

She was perplexed at how this could be but peaceful as she pondered what the angel had told her. She not only asked “why me” but “how me.” Though she was afraid others would question it but she knew that she was a virgin and this baby had to be from God.

There was a lot that Mary didn’t know the day the angel visit her but God knew. He knew that this innocent girl that he chose to be the mother of Jesus would be the woman about to give birth as she traveled on a donkey to Bethlehem. He knew this innocent teenager Mary would someday be the worried mother of a teenager when Jesus stayed behind in the temple. He knew this girl that pondered in her heart all the things the angel had told her would someday mourn at the cross.

God’s call is not always easy. Had Mary not been the chosen one at the manger then she wouldn’t have to be the chosen one at the cross. But, oh think of what she would have missed. She would have been an ordinary girl instead of the mother of God’s son.

So, as we think about Mary, this Christmas season, let’s remember that God calls the ordinary to do the extraordinary. Although, God’s call may not be easy it is the most rewarding life we could ever have. Whatever the call, God knows where that call lead us and he will never leave us alone. The son that the angel told Mary that she was going to bear was the very one that hung on the cross and told John to look after his mother. She was still the honored one.

“And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” (Luke 1:28) (ESV)