Main Idea: When the impossible is before you, surrender must be behind you.

In Max Lucado’s book God Came Near he introduces the book by telling the story of Bob Edens. Bob Edens was blind for 51 years of his life before a skilled surgeon performed the operation that gave him sight. Bob Edens was so overwhelmed with what he saw, he said, "I never would have dreamed yellow is so…yellow. I don’t have the words. I am amazed by yellow. But the red is my favorite color. I just can’t believe the red. I can see the shape of the moon. And, of course, sunrises and sunsets. And at night I look at the stars in the sky and the flashing light. You could never know how wonderful everything is." (God Came Near, p. 13-14).

Edens is not the only one who lives their lifetime in the presence of wonder and yet doesn’t see. We do that especially with the wonder of Christmas. This Christmas season I want us to imagine ourselves seeing how wonderful Christmas is once again. The eyes that I want us to use are the eyes of faith, the eyes of our mind, the eyes of our imagination and the eyes of our soul. Yet I also want us to use the eyes of one who witnessed all the events of this story—those of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

For us as Baptists, we ignore too quickly the significance and role of Mary. We fear to spend too much time on her importance would distract us from the Son she bore. To fail to grasp her part in the story is to ignore the reality of the role she played in the world’s crowning event. The Word became flesh" is the central fact of history. John wrote, " This one who is life from God was shown to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and announce to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was shown to us."(1 John 1:2) Mary was the only human participant in aiding her Father to show us the Son.

What I struggle with is that I as a man cannot understand what she felt as a woman. I cannot know what it is to feel the flutter of life within a womb. I cannot know the joy of seeing life come forth from your body. I cannot know all that she felt but I can know from the scriptures what she saw—The angel, shepherds, Anna and Simeon and wise men from another land. I want you to see what Mary saw by hearing the stories of those who saw her. Let’s listen to those eyewitnesses and see Mary and Christmas through their eyes and her eyes. Let’s meet our first eyewitness:

My name is Gabriel and yes, I am an angel. I am as my name means the Champion of God. The same One who created you created me. You were made from the dust of Earth but I was formed out of the matter of eternity. I exist for one purpose alone and that is as Messenger of the Creator. My place is always there in His presence. (Luke 1:19). I only leave His presence when he sends me to tell one of the children of earth something you seem not to understand any other way. I was the one who explained to Daniel the meaning of the visions he saw. I was the one who met John the Baptist’s father in the Temple to tell him he would have a son who would prepare the way for the Eternal Son of the Creator. There are many other missions the Creator has sent me on but the one that mattered most was when I was sent to a young daughter of Earth named Mary.

Standing in the presence of the Creator allowed me to see your planet in ways I may not have fully understood otherwise. You see, I saw you from your creation. The joy you brought to the Creator as He walked with you in the garden could only be matched by the sorrow He felt when you rejected Him. For when you chose to disobey a cry went out from His heart that all of the universe felt. All of the angels knew then knew that the price of the rebellion would be the sacrifice of the Son of the Creator Himself.

I watched your history unfold. The wars, hate, murder, sickness, greed, lust, rebellion—I saw it all. In my mind I questioned why the Creator did not choose to start over, why He cared, why He agonized over your disgusting ways and your refusal to turn back to Him no matter how He tried to turn you back. I wondered because I knew what it would cost. It would cost the Son. The Son was willing, willing to become like you in order to show you what the Creator felt about you. He was willing to give up all that was his to become like you. Why I still do not understand. All I know is that the Creator loved you so much that he could not let you live without giving you one final chance.

The Creator and the Son made the choice—the Son would become a child of the dust. But how? How to enter your world without force or manipulation? He could appear like a human but if he were not fully human, really human, then he could never understand what it is like to be you. The Creator’s plan involved a person and a process that I could not imagine. His plan was to find a girl--not just any girl, but a girl of devotion—who loved him fully, whose delight was in His Word, and invite that one to join him in doing the impossible. What was the impossible? It was for her to become pregnant without the aid of a human father before she was married. The Creator is always the one who gives that spark of life to children of Earth. Yet this time—this time—he just took, well, a short cut.

His eyes surveyed His universe. I stood ready each moment to bear the message to the one he chose, to offer to her that invitation that no other child of the earth had ever known. I remember the moment so clearly. He told me he had found her and her name was Mary. He pulled back the curtain of eternity for a moment to let me see her.

He said to me, "Gabriel, do you see her?" "Where, Lord?" "There in the village of Nazareth in the area of Palestine called Galilee." "Yes, Lord, I see her. She is drawing water from the well in the center of the village." "Yes, that is the one. The time has come to ask her, to invite her to bring into the world the Life for the world." "I will obey, my Lord."

As I watched her I saw only the impossible. She was by your earthly years 13 or 14 years old. Her hair was as dark as one of your nights without the moon. Her garment matched the color of the dust that swirled around her feet. Covering her head was a cloth that had the colors of the sun as it disappears from your sight. The Creator said she lived alone, that her mother and father had died earlier in the year and it was the task of her relative Elizabeth to care for her. Elizabeth had moved out of Nazareth to the hill country of Judea. Mary, though, had stayed behind because her beauty caught the attention of a man named Joseph, a carpenter originally from Bethlehem. They were pledged or engaged to be married soon. It is never my duty to question the wisdom of the Creator but to ask this one, so pure and innocent, to live with the risk, ridicule and the ultimate heartbreak was going to be difficult.

I was waiting for her when she got back to her home from the well. The clay jar was still on her shoulder when she stepped inside her small home. "Hello, Mary. You are the chosen one of God." She was so startled that the jar fell from her shoulder, landing with a crash, breaking the jar and sending the water chasing every low place in her floor. I could see she was terrified so I spoke again to her, "Don't be frightened, Mary for God has decided to bless you! You will become pregnant and have a son, and you are to name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!"(v. 30-33)

I waited for her to fall down with emotion and gratitude with the news of this announcement. She of all the daughter of Earth was chosen by the Creator to bring life, light and hope to the world. I know what I was expecting but what happened was, well, typical of the daughters of earth—she wanted details. She asked, "But how can I have a baby? I have never been married and have never been intimate with a man." When Zechariah questioned the message he was made unable to speak. It was then that I saw why the Creator had chosen her. She was not one to quickly say "yes" without fully understanding. If she was going to join the Creator in doing the impossible, she wanted all the facts!

The Creator had prepared me for just such a response. He had given me all the details that Mary would need. I do find it interesting that they were enough for her but never enough for you. I just told her "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby born to you will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God. What's more, your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! People used to say she was barren, but she's already in her sixth month." (Luke 1:35-36)

The last thing I told her was the most important. It was the same thing that had been said to her ancestor Sarah when she was told she would bear a child when she was almost 90. It was a statement that I had been witness to throughout your history. I knew of seas splitting in two, water coming out of a rock, armies defeated without a sword being drawn. I knew what the Creator was capable of – but this one, this young daughter of earth, how could she know? The words came from within me, "Mary, how asked how it is possible. The answer is God, Mary, God. Nothing is impossible with God."

Planets, stars, heaven, wind and seas all seemed to be stilled in that moment. What would this one say? It was now her choice. The Creator gives to his creation the choice of saying yes to join Him in His plans. There is a dignity that it gives somehow to you. I waited and then the words came from her lips, words that proved to be the beginning of the fulfillment of bringing the creation back to the Creator. The words were clear, heavy, humble and filled with a resolve I have never witnessed. "I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to accept whatever He wants. May everything you have said come true."

That was it. There was nothing more for me to do there. My next assignment would be Joseph, the one to whom she would marry. The Creator had a special message for him also. No, my tasks would not be finished for there will be shepherds who need to hear and wise men to guide but all in due time.

Yet as God’s messenger I have a message for you today. My message is more than a story of the past. God, the Creator, placed in front of Mary the chance to join him in doing the impossible. Without Him it would have been impossible to give birth to a child without a husband unless that child was God. If the Creator did that then that miracle opens up the possibilities of other impossibilities. If he did that one miracle then there is no limit to the other miracles he can do. There are homes to be restored, jobs or businesses to recover, diseases to be removed or hearts to be repaired, hopes to be resurrected. There are always the opportunities to make possible the impossible with God.

Mary was not afraid to say to me that she didn’t understand. Maybe you don’t understand either. Your questions and fears do not trouble the Creator. What troubles him most is that you do not ask. You children of dust have never understood how willing He is to hear your voice—even if it is a question.

When Mary understood how the impossible was possible she was ready for the choice. The chance to say "yes." I saw in her in that moment all that was to come—the questions, the shame, being misunderstood, misunderstanding him and finally the scene that the Creator himself only mentions quietly—a hill and a cross. You see, when the impossible was before Mary she put surrender behind her. You must do the same. You cannot, children of earth, join Him in the impossible still clinging to what possibly is holding you back. It may be something. It may be someone. More than likely it’s just you. The Creator waits for you to give up before he can go on. I’ve watched your struggles. I’ve seen what happens to those who refuse. There’s just no need. When the impossible is in front of you your surrender to God must be behind you.

One very young daughter of Earth. An impossibility before her. She said, "Yes." Her "yes" became your only hope.

Sunday, December 2, 2001

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org