Learning To Trust This Christmas Eve

It's Christmas Eve...

We are all getting excited over here to be together as a family.  The kids can't wait for Christmas morning to open their presents and see all their fun prizes.  Julia and Mark both told me one on one, "Mom, I know Christmas isn't all about the presents...it's all about Jesus...but the presents sure are fun!"  I love their honesty.  I am looking forward to just watching it all through their eyes...okay and maybe I am a little excited about the presents too.

On Christmas Eve it is our tradition to go to church as a family.  This will be our first Christmas Eve as a family of five!  I really can't put into words how much that means to me.  Mark and Julia were getting so big so fast and I wanted another baby so badly.  I had to wait until God's timing was perfect and it was hard to wait.  Especially since I was ready when Mark was about 6 months old!  Funny, huh?  Well, Micah is 9 months old on Christmas Day and I can tell you as plain as day, I AM NOT READY TO HAVE ANY MORE BABIES!  I am very content right now with this brood of mine.  But I can tell you I am super excited for the New Year and the Twin babies my sister in law is having.  Me and the big kids keep calling them "our babies".  Mark asks me regularly, "Mom, when will our babies be here so we can play with them?"  We are so excited to have cousins!  A boy and a girl!  How perfect is that?!

As I prepare my own heart for the next few days (focusing not only on myself and the gifts) I keep thinking of how trusting Mary was when the angel told her she was going to have a baby...the Messiah.  Here she was a very young woman (marrying age was usually 12-14 at that time) betrothed to Joseph and being told she was chosen to carry God's Son.  She must've known the dirty looks she might get, the ridicule, the misunderstanding people would have.  She must've known that this was going to be a huge undertaking to become a mom in less than a year.  She must've known how amazing it was that she was chosen to be Jesus Mother.

Here is the exchange between Mary and the angel in Luke 1:

The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

29Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

34“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called^b the Son of God.36Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. 37For no word from God will ever fail.”

38“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

How was Mary able to just trust the Lord and say, "I am the Lord's servant, may your word to me be fulfilled."  She didn't put up a fight.  She didn't say, "Find another woman!"  She didn't run away in fear.  She just recognized that God was God, He picked her, He would be with her, and that was that.

It got me to thinking...in what ways is God giving me a higher calling or task?  What is my purpose?  What has He asked of me?  Do I answer Him in reverence and worship and say, "I am the Lord's servant."?  Do I trust God enough to be bigger than my problems and situations?  Can I put my troubles, worries, anxieties safely in His hands and leave them there?

If a 12 year old girl was able to do it, I think God has equipped me and challenged me, and stretched me enough to know that I can trust Him.  He has my back.  He loves me.  He watches over me.  He sees the bigger picture.  And He promises to never leave me alone.

This Christmas Eve I want to learn to trust God with my life the way young Mary did.  I want to be able to just say I, Kristi, am your servant, Lord.  May your word to me be fulfilled.  Whatever you have planned for my life I am going to trust that your ways are better than my ways.  I am going to trust that your plans for me are for good.  I am going to trust that you have a future waiting for me.  

Who's with me?