Promises

Luke 1:46-56 (The Message)

And Mary said,

I'm bursting with God-news;
I'm dancing the song of my Savior God.
God took one good look at me, and look what happened—
I'm the most fortunate woman on earth!

What God has done for me will never be forgotten,
the God whose very name is holy, set apart from all others.
His mercy flows in wave after wave
on those who are in awe before him.

He bared his arm and showed his strength,
scattered the bluffing braggarts.
He knocked tyrants off their high horses,
pulled victims out of the mud.

The starving poor sat down to a banquet;
the callous rich were left out in the cold.
He embraced his chosen child, Israel;
he remembered and piled on the mercies, piled them high.

It's exactly what he promised,
beginning with Abraham and right up to now.

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months and then went back to her own home.

How important is keeping promises?

It's just about everything.

Trust is perhaps the most valuable resource that any of us have. Someone's trust is a sacred thing. Every time we keep a promise, and every time that we fail to deliver, we gain or lose credibility.

And all of us are tempted to make commitments...promises...that we can't keep. We say "yes" to things that we don't really want to do, or that we intend to do but then forget about altogether.

Unfortunately, breaking promises is part of being human. Not good, and to be avoided whenever and however possible, but broken trust does remain a real part of our human experience.

How does that impact our relationship with God?

I think it makes us wonder...can we trust God when we've had people break our trust in the past? At some point, don't you have to wise up and get tough?

Not with God.

This wonderful celebration from Mary reminds us that God always remembers, and always does, "...exactly what he promised."

He pulled the "victims from the mud." He "showed his strength." He "sat the starving poor down to a banquet," and "embraced his chosen child Israel."

To anyone looking at Elizabeth and Mary from the outside, they would have seen a woman too old to conceive and a foolish young girl who was now at risk of being left unwed and destitute. Certainly, they wouldn't have said, "this is the way that God embraces his chosen child Israel."

But Mary saw with eyes of faith. And she was right. God keeps his promises. Even during the days of the cross and the tomb, I don't think she ever gave up completely.

Easter, resurrection, redemption, new life. It all starts with faith that says, "God will do what he said." May it be so with us, too.

Prayer: God our Father, we pray that you would embrace us as your chosen children, just as you have said that you would. Give us eyes to see your promises fulfilled, especially in the most unlikely of places.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end. Amen.

Tomorrow's Scripture: Luke 1:57-66