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QuestionsWednesday, December 20, 2000
Luke 1:34 Psalm 139:16. "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Isaiah 55:8-9. "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord. "As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." In Disappointment with God, Phillip Yancey says tragedy is usually met with the question "Why, Lord?" Those who move through their grief into the rest of their lives are able to turn the question into "What next, Lord?" God's intimacy with me is limited by my own limitations. I can worship God, but I can't understand him. I am a human being created by God; he is God. There are moments, fragmentary and instant, when I seem to get deeper than myself; those moments, for now, are the exception rather than the rule. 1 Corinthians 13:12. "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." Journalism students are taught to answer the 5 "w" questions in their articles: who, what, when, where, why. If I interview God about the tornadoes, the whirlpools, the death and dying in my life, he'll comfort me but he won't tell me why. I wouldn't understand. Mary didn't understand; she stayed within herself, she asked good questions, and she followed her Father. She obeys, and Jesus is born. Lord, thank you for illuminating the darkness in my life with your light. You know me perfectly and know my future perfectly. Break my demanding spirit, and teach me to be satisfied with what you show me, when you show me. Amen. |
Gabriel goes to a lot of trouble to answer Mary's questions, both before and after Mary asks this one. Much more so than he did with Zechariah, probably because Mary was curious, not skeptical. And one thing Mary did not ask, either in words or in attitude, was "Why, Lord?"