When did it become a crime
To love, to serve God?
When did obedience
Become sacrilege?
Get away guilt! Get lost shame
I didn’t do it. I can’t do it
All I did was trust and obey
But who will believe?

I’ve been hammered a number of times for obeying God. I have feared and cried about reactions without regretting my action. I learned to take responsibility for my obedience, to refuse to deal with unhelpful blame, guilt and regrets, and to trust and wait for God’s vindication. I recall in one church where I was taking care of the Sunday publication, I was hit for including, “Scandalous Conception,” on the bulletin. How can the holy church be associated with such outrageous ideas? Yet that was Mary’s case if truth must be told.

She was a teenage girl with great dreams until God stepped in and changed the course of her life. According to the Good Book, “Mary was found to be with child before she was married….” Where the angel showed up with the announcement of God’s will for her was exactly where her own dreams for her life ended. But God knew the girl that would obey Him. He chose to use Mary knowing from her history, that this girl will do God’s will despite the exorbitant cost. She didn’t do it: God did! All she did was obey. She risked being stoned to death: that was the cost of her obedience!

Teenage pregnancy may be cool these day but you can be sure that those days and in the culture wherein Mary was raised, it definitely wasn’t. Let your teenage daughter, sister or niece come home one day and tell you she is pregnant and you may get a feel of how that went. You think the neighborhood ever forgot ‘the girl that got pregnant before she was wed?” As if that wasn’t bad enough, she adds this spin of acclaimed innocence. She blamed God for getting her pregnant. How ridiculous is it? Would you believe that? If not, then we can’t blame those who didn’t buy the ‘virgin-birth’ story. If it were today, photos of her will be trending on all social media: #impregnatedbyGod #LOLROTF #SMH. That young girl who sought nothing but to do the will of God became an embarrassment to her fiancé, her family and in the society. Her sin: obedience to God. All she did was say to God, “Do with me as You please.” And God did just that which wasn’t very socially pleasant. Why couldn’t God find a married woman and save the innocent girl from shame. But His ways are not our ways.

Then poor Joseph who had done nothing wrong but wanting to do God’s will was caught in the middle of this spinning tale. Charged by God, he had to buy her story and take Mary under his wings. How many men today would bite that apple if it were handed to you be it by an Eve or a Mary? How many men will not snicker behind the back of a fellow man who takes a woman with child that isn’t his, from a woman who claims such incredulous nonsense? In our condemnation is the release of those who refused to accept that tale then. Irrespective of times and places, we all think and act alike. But God knew the man that would obey Him. Thus He chose to use Joseph. God revealed His will through an angel to Joseph knowing from his history, that this man will do God’s will despite the cost to his integrity and personality.

If you are still wondering how God chooses His candidates, here is the answer: God is not partial. God is no respecter of persons. He honors those who are not ashamed to answer when He calls and follow however and wherever He leads. God uses those who have learned to trust and obey in small things to accomplish the great and change history. God didn’t just pick Mary and Joseph out of the blues: it was based on their quiet and private walk with Him down the years. They learned to say, “Yes LORD!” long before Jesus’s conception was announced. If you want to do the impossible with God, learn trust and obedience with the little things everyone takes for granted.

To be continued (January 3, 2020)

Glory!