The Country Girl Met an Angel
Luke 1:26-38Once upon a time, in the village of Nazareth, at Bethlehem, there was a girl who was kind, obedient, and loving God. That girl was named Mary. In the village, everyone loved Mary because she was very sweet and lovely. Mary just got engaged with a young man named Joseph. Even though Joseph was only a poor carpenter, but because of knowing Joseph was a moral person who also loved God, Mary accepted to be married with Joseph. It's very soon that they would have a wedding. Mary didn't have any more wish than to have a husband who loved God so she could be with her husband to worship and live for God. One day, Mary was busy to take care some housework, suddenly there was a voice talking: "Hello Mary! You was blessed by God; may God be with you!" Waking up, Mary looked outside the door and saw a human shadow with a bright nimbus. Mary was afraid but just thought that might be an angel; therefore, she kneed down right away. It had been a long time that God's angels didn't appear to His people. Mary was worry and didn't understand why an angel came and blessed her so. Seeing Mary was afraid, the angel said: "Don't be afraid because you are blessed by God. You will be pregnant, will give birth to a Son and name Him, Jesus. That Son is great, and will be called the Son of God. God will give him the throne of King David. He will govern Israel forever, and His kingdom will never end." Mary was less afraid now, but she still didn't understand all the things the angel just said. She asked herself: "I haven't had a husband yet, but why You said I will give birth to a son?" The angel responded: "The Son who you will have is the Son of God, not the son of the world. The Holy Spirit will come over you, so the Son of Spirit will be called the Son of God. You know your relative, Elizabeth, who is very old and hasn't had a child yet; but now she has been pregnant for six months. Remember that, there is nothing that God cannot do." Even though Mary didn't understand all the things the angel said; but she believed the angel's words, and so she said with her head bowed: "I only a servant of the Lord. May all things will happen to me as You said." When the angel left, Mary was silently thinking. At first she was a little bit worry, but the more she thought the more she felt happy inside. Mary wasn't sure how all things would happen, but she believed that God would act on His words. It had been several hundred years passed, God promised to give a Savior to save His people. Israel nation was still waiting but they hadn't seen the Savior to appear yet. Now Mary knew for sure that Savior was coming soon, and she had the honor to give birth to Him. It's truly a great honor. Mary came back to do her work that was left in the middle, but her mind was still thinking continuously. She thought: how would my wedding happen? What would Joseph think about me if he heard that I was pregnant? He must be very sad. Don't know if Joseph still wanted to process the wedding and willing to take care the Son of God?… Thinking to here, Mary felt worry inside, not peaceful; so, she kneed down and prayed. Mary asked God to help Joseph to believe her words and still love her as before. Not too long after that, Joseph knew Mary was pregnant. He was sad and disappointed very much. He believed Mary was a good, moral girl; he didn't expect that she was that bad. With long thinking, Joseph still didn't understand why there could be something disgraceful like that happened. According to the tradition at that time, if a girl without a husband was pregnant, she would be killed by throwing stones to her; because that was the shameful thing for both the community and relatives. Because of his love to Mary, Joseph didn't dare to share this shameful thing to anyone. But even he didn't want Mary to loose her life, Joseph also didn't want to marry a girl like that to be his wife. Therefore, he planned to drop the marriage silently. One night, while Joseph was sleeping, an angel came to his dream and said: "Joseph, don't be afraid to take Mary to be your wife, because the Son who she's carrying is born by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son and you name Him as Jesus, because this Son will save our nation from our sins. Everything happened like that, according to God's words promised from a long time ago: A virgin girl will be pregnant and give birth to a son. Then people will name him, Emmanuel - means, the Lord be with us." Joseph woke up, and thinking perplex: "Is it possible that I just saw an angel? But how the angel knew I didn't want to marry Mary any more? Well, this thing is just a God's miracle! If it's so, Mary is not a bad person. Mary is blessed by God." Joseph was very happy and couldn't go back to sleep. He was thinking that some day he would be a daddy of the Son of God; Joseph was happy and worry because that was a big responsibility. Although he did not know clearly what God would do, but like Mary, Joseph believed in God perfectly. Although he didn't know what the future would hold, how his family life would be, but Joseph just believed in God. He forgot about dropping his marriage, instead, he decided to marry Mary and take care her to the day the Son of God was born. Joseph felt much happier inside when he thought: The Savior is coming and I am the honorable person who can take care of Him. Joseph silently prayed and asked God to give him the wisdom so that He can bring up the Son of God. Mary and Joseph believe in God and obey His words perfectly. Two of them could give many excuses to not accept this plan from God. They could say: "Dear God, I don't deserve it; that plan is hard for me to do; I don't think I can do it, etc…" But no, they were both happy to accept God's plan and obey His words. Do you obey God's words? God wants us to obey His words in all situations. You probably say: "But how can I know it was God's words to follow?" Through God's words in the Bible, we can know what God wants us to do. First of all, God wants you all believe in God and surrender your life to God and let Him be the leader of your life. Second of all is God wants you to obey your parents. Have you ever not obeyed your parents? Surely, yes. Many times, your parents ask you to help out in the house, but because of your laziness, you give this excuse or that excuse to avoid not doing the work. The things, that your parent don't want you to do, you want to do them. The Bible teaches us, children must obey their parents in all cases. Whoever doesn't obey their parents' teaching is the one who also doesn't obey God's word. Hope that you all follow to Mary and Joseph's images, and obey God's words with all your heart. QUESTIONS:
To read and listen to other Bible stories, please click here. Written by Minh Nguyen
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