Luke 1:26-38 Read it before you read my drivel. This is the good stuff. I just talk about it. Need a link? Here’s another great one. Once again I’m linking to the New Living Translation. It’s my favourite for this type of study but there are so many excellent translations. Don’t let me tell you which to use.
https://www.bible.com/bible/116/LUK.1.NLT#:~:text=26In%20the%20sixth,angel%20left%20her.
Here we have a second angelic visit. The last one was to the capital city, to a spiritual leader who was well along in years. This one is to a backwater town, to a girl who wasn’t yet twenty. God chooses who he chooses. It sure isn’t about our heritage or social standing. I can’t be the only one who finds that encouraging!
“Greetings, O favoured one,” (Luke 1:28, English Standard Version) See, if Gabriel said that to Zechariah, he would have, I imagine, been very pleased and honoured. Mary, by contrast, was thinking, “What is going on and what does that mean?” Mary’s response to the angel was also different. Zechariah says, “How can I know you’re telling the truth?” to an angel who is suddenly standing beside him in the Temple. (Sorry, I will never not find that bizarre.) Mary, on the other hand, says, “Ummm how’s that gonna work?” The angel explains, and I’m betting she is just as confused as she was before he started. She probably even had a puzzled look on her face because the angel assured her that, “nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37, ESV). She responds, “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38, ESV)
That, I think, is what God favoured in her. She knew who she was and where she stood in relation to God. She was his servant, and he could do what he chose. She didn’t need a lot of explanation or assurance. God sent an angel to tell her something. She said, “Okay. I’m here for the ride.” There was so little about Mary’s ride that would be easy. But she simply said “I belong to God. He can do what he likes.” This woman (actually this teenage girl) is such a picture of the open-heartedness I want to have toward God. “You want to use me how? I’m in.” Protestants like me tend to downplay Mary because she has been venerated and prayed to and treated in a way that makes us feel uncomfortable. But in the process, I think we have missed that she was really kind of remarkable. It’s too bad that in pushing back against a doctrine that probably goes too far in honouring someone, we go too far in ignoring her and undervaluing her contribution to the narrative. Let’s make a concerted effort as we continue through this book to avoid that. There is much to be learned from the woman God chose to be the mother of his beloved son. 
