Heaven and Nature Sing: 5 Days to Reflect During AdventSample

In this season when we celebrate the Promised Son coming in human form—a human body—we must not miss how our bodies testify to God’s faithfulness. But to do this, you’ll have to back up to the beginning—back to the time when God created you in the darkness of your mother’s womb. But of course, that’s exactly where the story of Jesus’s body begins as well.

After Luke introduces us to Zechariah and Elizabeth, he turns our attention to a young woman named Mary who lives in Nazareth. She is a relative of Elizabeth, and like her, she receives a visit from the angel Gabriel. Unaccustomed to such heavenly visions, Mary is naturally afraid, but Gabriel calms her and tells her she has found favor with God and “will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus” (Luke 1:31-32).

There’s only one problem. While God may be the one who creates human bodies, he uses a process called sexual reproduction to do it. We share this process with many trees, flowers, and animals, and although Mary likely didn’t know the details of how it all worked, she knew a human baby needed a father. She was engaged to a man named Joseph, but they were not yet married, and she was a virgin. So she’s understandably confused. Gabriel reassures her: “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).

We could explore the significance of this virgin birth at length (as many theologians have), but don’t miss the startling reality that the Bible is holding out in front us: the Promised Son was...conceived.

Just like us, Jesus spent nine months growing inside his mother’s womb. Just like us, His physical body went from ovum to zygote to embryo to fetus to newborn. And whatever we might conclude about the uniqueness of his conception or the way this uniqueness plays itself out in his life and ministry, there’s something to learn from conception itself.

Conception is a promise.

So, when Mary received the announcement of the Promised Son, she did not yet receive the reality of the Promised Son.

In this moment, Mary had a choice: she could doubt the angel as Zechariah had, or she could receive the word of God in faith, believing it was true. Only time would prove whether her hope was well placed or not, but in this moment, with the angel standing before her, she chooses to believe.

And once she believes, it changes her.

In this way, conception and pregnancy teach us the shape of the Christian life. They teach us how to behave as we wait for our hope to show itself to be true, to walk according to what we’ve heard and what we expect.