Click here to watch out our third storybook entry! Did you find “baby Jesus” the other times? Keep your eye’s open and see if you can spot him today!

Also, did you find “baby Jesus” on Sunday?! Make sure to try and find him next Sunday when you go to Grow Zone!

Today we want to get you thinking!

Yesterday we read about Mary learning that she would give birth to the Savior. She was afraid, but choose to trust God and His plan for her life. Our challenge for you today is to think for yourself and ask any 2 people the following question…

Do you think it’s easy to trust God, why or why not?

Pause where you are and ask God to open your eyes to see Him today.

Specifically ask for Him to show you where you have a hard time trusting Him and His plans for your life.

Mary was probably folding laundry or helping with dinner when her life changed forever. She was young. Likely a teenager. Engaged to a carpenter. Living in a nothing-special town called Nazareth. She had her whole life planned out in the predictable way lives were planned in first-century Galilee. Marriage, children, community, faith. Simple. Safe. Normal.

Then Gabriel shows up.

READ

Let’s take a moment to read Luke 1:26-38:

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

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.

But the angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 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, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.’ ‘How will this be,’ Mary asked the angel, ‘since I am a virgin?’ 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. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.’ ‘I am the Lord’s servant,’ Mary answered. ‘May your word to me be fulfilled.’ Then the angel left her.”

REFLECT

Mary’s initial response to the angel Gabriel is comforting because it shows her humanity. Fear and confusion plagued her. Gabriel doesn’t explain anything or calm the fears Mary must have had about her reputation. She was going to be pregnant outside of marriage, which was not a good look, especially for cultural norms back then. She also risked rejection from Joseph. 

But the angel reassured her not to be afraid and to trust. God is inviting Mary into the most important mission in human history, becoming the mother of the Messiah, the one through whom God’s love would be expressed to the world. But from Mary’s perspective, this was very scary and for good reason. The response she gets to the objection that she is a virgin is “The Holy Spirit will come upon you... nothing will be impossible with God.”

Then history turns on these simple words: “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” Mary’s “yes” is breathtaking. She doesn’t have all the answers. She doesn’t know how Joseph will react. She doesn’t know how her family will respond. She doesn’t know how this story ends. But she knows who God is, and she trusts that He is good.

This is what makes Mary’s faith so powerful. She says yes to God without requiring guarantees about her comfort, her reputation, or her safety. She says yes because she believes God is worthy of trust, even when His invitation feels overwhelming. God could have chosen anyone, anywhere, any way to bring Jesus into the world. But He chose to work through a young woman’s willing cooperation. He chose to make the Incarnation, His love expressed in human form, dependent on human consent. Mary’s “yes” mattered. 

Your “yes” matters too. God is still inviting people into His story. Not to bear the Messiah. That job’s taken. But to participate in how His love gets expressed in the world. Sometimes those invitations feel manageable. But sometimes they feel overwhelming. Sometimes they ask us to risk something, our comfort, our plans, our reputation, our security.

Maybe God is nudging you to forgive a friend who hurt you, even though they haven’t apologized. Or to step into a leadership role at school or youth group that feels way bigger than your abilities. Or to chase a dream or calling that doesn’t seem “practical” compared to what everyone else expects. Or to show kindness to the classmate who’s always left out. Or to trust Him with your future: college, relationships, or family. Even when you can’t see how it will all work out.

God’s invitations to show His love rarely come with a clear roadmap. More often, they come with uncertainty, risk, and questions. But they always come with this assurance: “The Lord is with you. Nothing is impossible with God.”

Mary teaches us that faith isn’t about having everything figured out. It’s about trusting that God is good, even when His invitation feels costly. It’s about saying “yes” to God’s purposes, even when they disrupt our plans. What is God inviting you to say “yes” to this Advent? What would it mean to respond like Mary, not with perfect understanding, but with perfect trust?

• Where is God inviting you to say “yes” this Advent season — even if it disrupts your plans?

• How does Mary’s example of trust without complete understanding challenge or encourage you?

PRAY

Lord, we often want all the answers before we say yes to You. Give us faith like Mary—the courage to trust Your goodness even when Your invitation feels overwhelming. Help us believe that You are with us and that nothing is impossible with You. Make us willing to servants to Your purposes. Amen.

READ

Mary was probably folding laundry or helping with dinner when her life changed forever.

She was young—likely a teenager. Engaged to a carpenter. Living in a nothing-special town called Nazareth. She had her whole life planned out in the predictable way lives were planned in first-century Galilee. Marriage, children, community, faith. Simple. Safe. Normal.

Then Gabriel shows up.

Let’s take a moment to read Luke 1:26-38:

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

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 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, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

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

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[a] the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her.

REFLECT

"Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you."

Mary is "greatly troubled" by these words. The Greek word suggests deep confusion, maybe even fear. This isn't how regular Tuesday afternoons are supposed to go. And what Gabriel says next doesn't make things less overwhelming—it makes them infinitely more complicated.

"You will conceive and bear a son... He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High."

Let's sit with the magnitude of this for a moment. God is inviting Mary into the most important mission in human history—becoming the mother of the Messiah, the one through whom God's love would be expressed to the world. But from Mary's perspective, this invitation looks like a scandal waiting to happen.

She's unmarried. Pregnancy outside of marriage could mean public shame, rejection by Joseph, possibly even death by stoning. Her reputation, her security, her future—all of it is suddenly at risk. And Gabriel isn't offering solutions to these very real problems. He's just asking her to trust.

"How will this be," Mary asks, "since I am a virgin?"

This isn't doubt—it's honest questioning. It's Mary trying to understand something beyond her comprehension. And Gabriel's answer doesn't make it clearer, really. "The Holy Spirit will come upon you... nothing will be impossible with God."

Then comes the hinge of human history, spoken in simple words: "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said." Mary's "yes" is breathtaking. She doesn't have all the answers. She doesn't know how Joseph will react. She doesn't know how her family will respond. She doesn't know how this story ends. But she knows who God is, and she trusts that He is good.

This is what makes Mary's faith so powerful. She says yes to God without requiring guarantees about her comfort, her reputation, or her safety. She says yes because she believes God is worthy of trust, even when His invitation feels overwhelming. God could have chosen anyone, anywhere, any way to bring Jesus into the world. But He chose to work through a young woman's willing cooperation. He chose to make the Incarnation—His love expressed in human form—dependent on human consent. Mary's "yes" mattered.

Your "yes" matters too. God is still inviting people into His story. Not to bear the Messiah—that job's taken—but to participate in how His love gets expressed in the world. Sometimes those invitations feel manageable. But sometimes they feel overwhelming. Sometimes they ask us to risk something—our comfort, our plans, our reputation, our security.

Maybe God is inviting you to forgive someone who doesn't deserve it. To step into a role you feel unqualified for. To pursue a calling that doesn't make financial sense. To love someone everyone else has written off. To trust Him with something precious when you can't see how it will work out. The invitation to express God's love rarely comes with all the answers. It usually comes with questions, risks, and unknowns. But it always comes with this promise: "The Lord is with you. Nothing is impossible with God."

Mary teaches us that faith isn't about having everything figured out. It's about trusting that God is good, even when His invitation feels costly. It's about saying "yes" to God's purposes, even when they disrupt our plans. What is God inviting you to say "yes" to this Advent? What would it mean to respond like Mary—not with perfect understanding, but with perfect trust?

RESPOND

Take a moment to process what God might be leading you to do in light of what you read.

• What invitation from God feels overwhelming or risky to you right now?

• What fears or concerns are making it difficult for you to say "yes" to God's leading?

• How does Mary's example of trust without complete understanding challenge or encourage you?

REST

Take a moment to rest in God’s presence and consider one thing you can take away from your time reading, then close your devotional experience by praying:

Lord, we confess that we often want all the answers before we say yes to You. Give us the faith of Mary—the courage to trust Your goodness even when Your invitations feel overwhelming. Help us believe that You are with us and that nothing is impossible with You. Make us willing servants of Your purpose. Amen.