From her perspective

Dear friend Gerry Coleman shared this on Facebook the other day – a reflection on the blessed Virgin Mary and the phrase used by the angel Gabriel in the annunciation.

She was "highly favored" but was almost put away by the man she loved the most.

"Highly favored" but she was rejected by every person in Bethlehem.

"Highly Favored" but she laid on the dirt floor of a barn and gave birth to a baby she carried nine months.

"Highly Favored" but in the middle of the night had to leave all she knew and move to a strange town because God said so.

Favor never looks like favor at first. Favor sometimes takes you through frustration, failure, and fear. You want to be favored of God? It may be in darkest night or deepest valley. But there in that place where no one sees you and you feel like no one understands whisper to yourself, "this is only the beginning not the end. This will turn out for my good and His glory. This is because...I'm Favored."

~ Evangelist Brent Carr

You are highly favored. As the writer to the Hebrews wrote of the sacrifice of Christ Jesus for you, “14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham” (Hebrews 2:14-15).

Through Christ Jesus - God incarnate, God with us - you can be assured that by the Holy Spirit our God is indeed at work in all things for your good and His glory (Romans 8:28). As you are perhaps transiting the darkest night or the deepest of valleys it is my fervent prayer that God’s richest blessings grace your life as we celebrate the nativity of our Lord.