Mary the Mother of JesusSample

A Life Now Holy

What does God’s presence with us mean? For Mary, and often for us, it means a new dream, a new plan, a new life. One that we may not understand yet. One that may seem strange and impossible, that will promise discomfort as much as success. One that will most likely upend our lives!

But that’s what God’s favor, what his dynamic presence, really means. It means a call out of the ordinary into the extraordinary. It means the Savior himself comes into our lives.

To Mary, it must have seemed crazy. R. Kent Hughes explains it this way: “She understood the gist of the angel’s announcement: ‘You are going to become pregnant; you are going to call your son’s name Salvation, he is going to be the Son of God; and he will be the Messiah.’ What an earful! What an incredible heartful!”

God’s plans for us may seem crazy too. It may seem that what he calls us to is impossible. So, like Mary, we may ask, “How will this be?” Not “Will this really be?” rather, “How will it be?” How will God accomplish his purposes in our lives?

He answers us the same way he answered Mary: by the Holy Spirit. Gabriel said, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you” (Luke 1:35). You see, there’s something mysterious, something beyond us, in this call to be his. There’s something about his overshadowing power that makes the impossible more than possible. And that makes the results holy. Gabriel said, “The one being born will be called holy” (Luke 1:35, translation mine). What is born from the Holy Spirit, from God’s power in our lives, is holy.

The life that comes when we receive God’s call is no longer ordinary. Instead, that life is holy. Your everyday, in-and-out, kitchen life is holy.

That’s what it means to follow God—to open your life to the unexpected Christ. It means encountering him in the ordinary and finding that life has become extraordinary. It means the impossible thing is real. It means taking a step into wonder ... because life is now holy.