The virgin Mary conceived not simply BECAUSE she was favoured by God.  She was favoured by God AND she conceived. The Angel Gabriel first affirmed Mary's identity and then revealed her destiny.

There is a danger of misunderstanding the words the Angel Gabriel said to the teenage virgin, Mary, who was to become the mother of Jesus.

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you.”

29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favour with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

34 “How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”

35 The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.

(Luke 1: 26-35, taken from the NIV Version)

I am sure that I have heard these words every year for the whole of my life, yet this year I have heard them quite differently.

The implication of Gabriel’s words, as reported by certain versions of the bible, is this:

Mary, you are highly favoured, and because you have found favour with God, You will conceive and give birth to a son.

I have always, until this year, understood that it was because Mary was highly favoured by God that she was to give birth. As if to say, that if she was not highly favoured by God then she would not give birth. Stretched further, it could be easy for us to make wild cause and effect conclusions, like; “I don’t have a baby, therefore I am not favoured” or “I cannot conceive, does that mean that God has not found favour in me?”

Yet the two (the favour and the birth) are not, and should not be linked this way. Why Mary? Why not anyone else? We don’t really know the answer to that, she seemed to be an ‘ordinary girl’, living at a particular time, born of a particular lineage.

The Message translation unlocked this passage for me. It says the following:

Upon entering, Gabriel greeted her:

Good morning!
You’re beautiful with God’s beauty,
Beautiful inside and out!
God be with you.

29-33 She was thoroughly shaken, wondering what was behind a greeting like that. But the angel assured her, “Mary, you have nothing to fear. God has a surprise for you: You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus.

He will be great,
be called ‘Son of the Highest.’
The Lord God will give him
the throne of his father David;
He will rule Jacob’s house forever—
no end, ever, to his kingdom.”

34 Mary said to the angel, “But how? I’ve never slept with a man.”

35 The angel answered,

The Holy Spirit will come upon you,
the power of the Highest hover over you;
Therefore, the child you bring to birth
will be called Holy, Son of God.

In this translation we see the distinction between the affirming and loving words the Angel Gabriel delivers to Mary the mother of Jesus, and the message that the Angel Gabriel delivers to Mary.

The virgin Mary conceived not simply BECAUSE she was favoured by God.  She was favoured by God AND she conceived. The Angel Gabriel first affirmed Mary's identity and then revealed her destiny.

The Angel Gabriel first affirms Mary the mother of Jesus:

You’re beautiful with God’s beauty,

Then the Angel Gabriel delivers the message to the virgin Mary:

You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and call his name Jesus.

How does this resonate with you?

Perhaps you are struggling to conceive, or maybe there is another area where you are crying out for a breakthrough? Are you beginning to look inward and becoming self-doubting? Perhaps you are beginning to question whether God actually does love you and wants the best for you?

Receive these words the Angel Gabriel pronounced to the virgin Mary for yourself:

Whatever you are going through right now, you are highly favoured, highly loved, and highly adored by God. He sees you as being more beautiful than the human definition of beauty. He looks at you with exactly the same amount of affection as He always has done, even from before your conception. Nothing you have done, are doing, or ever do will reduce the amount of love that He has for you. Nothing you have gone through, are going through, or will go through changes how God sees you.

See yourself as God sees you.