Surprised to Be Chosen
And Mary said: "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant."
- Luke 1:46-47
Had Mary lived her life like so many other girls her age, she would have married a poor man, given birth to numerous poor children, never traveled more than a few miles from her home, and died like thousands of others before her. You see, Mary was a nobody living in Nazareth, a nothing town in the middle of nowhere.
But here is the amazing thing: God intervened. Do you think Mary, in her wildest dreams, ever would have imagined that she was the Virgin the prophet Isaiah spoke of when he said, "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel" (Isaiah 7:14)? Do you think when she heard that, she said, "I am going to be that woman. That's me"? I don't think the thought even crossed her mind.
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She could have said to the angel Gabriel, "Hello? It's about time you showed up! I always knew I would be the Virgin spoken of by Isaiah! I've been waiting for you!"
But that isn't at all how she responded to Gabriel's announcement. In fact, it was the very opposite of that. Mary was honestly surprised that God had chosen her. It seems to me that when God uses people, they are always amazed that He would choose someone like them. A truly godly person will never boast of his or her great devotion or holiness. They won't talk about what they have done for God. Rather, they will talk about what God has done for them.
God chose a young, unknown girl who lived in a relatively unknown city to bring about the most known event in human history. God uses nobodies to tell everybody about Somebody. God specializes in choosing ordinary people and doing extraordinary things with them and through them.
