I find Mary’s faith in this passage remarkable. She first responds with a willing heart. Instead of an attitude of anger and resentment toward God for interrupting her life, she willingly accepts God’s plan and direction for her own life. She responds to the angel, “I am the Lord’s servant… may your word to me be fulfilled.”

After the angel leaves, Mary responds with willing feet. She stopped what she was doing and hurried to visit her relative Elizabeth. She believed the angel’s message that Elizabeth was pregnant, and her actions revealed how she believed God’s word would also be true for herself. Mary believed the angel’s message that “no word from God will ever fail.” Elizabeth’s words to Mary were also true: “blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

Just like Mary, we can also have this remarkable faith. Let us respond to the words of God with a willing heart and willing feet. We may not have complete control over how our lives turn out, but we can be like Mary and have a faithful response.

“My baby daughter had a fever and nothing I did throughout the night helped. By early morning, she wasn’t responding. Due to living in a rural area and having no phone signal, I didn’t know what to do. In desperation I took her outside and tried to look for some help, but there was no one. So, I cried out, ‘Help me God or something worse could happen to my daughter’. At that point a taxi appeared out of nowhere. He stopped and took us to the hospital. At the hospital, I remembered hearing that ‘only with God impossible things are possible.’ So, I asked some Christians to come visit me. They repeatedly came to visit and share God’s Word with me until my baby was discharged. After this, I visited their church and responded to the altar call. With gratitude I made Christ my Lord.” -Gloria, Mexico

—by Aaron Acheson, JFHP Graphic Designer