...A New Beginning...

“46 And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord,

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

48 for He has looked with favor on the lowliness of His servant.    

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and Holy is His Name.

50 His mercy is for those who fear Him    

from generation to generation.

51 He has shown strength with His arm; 

He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

52 He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;

53 He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.

54 He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy,

55 according to the promise He made to our ancestors, 

to Abraham and to His descendants for ever’” Luke 1:46-55.

Often in life we are forced to wait for something to happen that we really want to happen! Sometimes it never happens and we run out of hope! Sometimes, what we are waiting for happens! It feels good when that happens. Imagine being Mary who, alongside the entire Jewish nation, had been waiting for generations, even centuries, for the Creator of the world to come and create a new world. Then, one day, the first sign falls into her lap as she is praying. Her hope has come alive. But what she and her nation have been waiting for centuries is happening in and through her! Of all people, an angel of God appears and tells Mary, “You are going to have a son. He will be God’s chosen one to put everything right at last!” Mary knew she was a virgin and could not be pregnant!

So the small stirrings of new life in her body are the sure sign that the world’s Creator is doing a new thing. The letter has arrived in the mailbox out front. It’s time for the celebration to begin. The whole of Luke’s gospel is about the way in which the living God has planted, in Jesus, the seed of that long-awaited hope in the world. It begins with that tiny life in Mary’s womb. It continues with Jesus as a young adult planting seeds of hope around Galilee and Jerusalem. It climaxes with Jesus himself being placed in the dark tomb and rising again to launch God’s worldwide project of putting the world the right way up. That’s the story we are now invited to live within our herts and make our own during these forty days of Lent.

What begins today on Ash Wednesday with the words, “You are dust, and unto dust you shall return!”, is a reminder that we are all a part of God’s plan to come and recreate us — for eternity with Him! We too must die, not just physically, but spiritually. Our sinful self must become dust so that our resurrected self may live with God forever. Be in prayer these forty days, asking the Lord, “Lord where do I fit into this story? What would you have me do in the remaining days and hours of my life? Forgive me and set my feet once again on the path You wish me to follow. Help me to bring hope and daylight to everyone in my life. In Your name I pray, amen.”

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.