Mary's Response

I was reading a devotion about when the angel appeared to Mary and told her that she would be the mother of Jesus Christ.  The devotion asked something like, "What is noteworthy about Mary's response to what the angel told her?" Now this isn't a new question. I have heard this question asked and talked about many, many times before. Often there are references made to Mary's faith in believing that God could do what He said. 

But something struck me unexpectedly as I was thinking about the question. I remember when I was preparing to marry Josh. I was like a woman obsessed.  I didn't want anything to stand in the way of our marriage plans and the future we were preparing to start.  Now, I know that Mary and Joseph's marriage was probably arranged and so it was a little different, but I wonder if Mary ever thought, "God, you are really messing up my plans!  I want to be a young married wife and not already pregnant when I get married and be a mother soon after - especially the mother of the Savior. I just want a normal life like everyone else. That is so much pressure!  Can't you find someone else to do it?"  It isn't her faith that surprises me, as much as her unselfishness in submitting to God's plans, even though she had to know it would reek havoc on the plans she had already made.

I so often complain or feel disgruntled when things don't go the way I think they should go.  If I have plans and they don't come to fruition, I can be the most miserable person!  Often I am not reacting to the negativity of the alternative, but I am mad and frustrated that I didn't get to choose the alternative.  When sickness or weather prevents us from doing something, it is not that staying home is that terrible.  I regularly enjoy staying home.  It is the fact that I didn't get to be the one to chose to stay home. 

I pray that I could have the unselfish response of Mary.