"I'll do it myself!"

Any mother of toddlers has heard these words, usually shouted at top voice.

My three-year-old twins are no exception to this. They are champions of Do It Myself-ness.

My son in particular loves to be independent. He wants to be Superman.

Every day getting into the van, we have a struggle over opening the automatic sliding door. He wants to open it himself, but, although he can press the button inside to close it, he's not strong enough to pull the handle on the outside to activate the opening mechanism.

As you can imagine, this causes a lot of delay. I've actually starting to leave the van door open inside the garage in order to avoid the whole thing.

My little boy simply refuses to accept the fact that he's not able to open the door from the outside, and he needs Mommy's help in order to do it.

This reminds me of us as Christians in a way. We want to do it ourselves.

More than anything, we want to rely on our own righteousness. We want to be "good enough" for God. We say we're saved by grace and all that, but do we act that way?

In fact, many times what we do is live by a set of rules, and try to get everyone else to agree that our version of the rules is the correct one.

But we don't earn God's grace by being good enough to deserve it. We can't.

So why do we keep trying to be good, using our own strength, instead of allowing God to work through us? I don't know.

Not only is relying on our own righteousness much harder, more frustrating and utterly doomed to failure, it can actually separate us from God.

Galatians 5:4 says, "You who are trying to be justified by law have been alienated from Christ; you have fallen away from grace."

When I read this, I found it incredibly convicting. Is trying to be justified by my own "goodness" actually alienating me from Christ? God forbid!

Why can't I just be humble enough to admit I CAN'T do it myself?

Mary's Response to an Angel Visitor

"The Annunciation" by Paolo de Matteis

The Magnificat, or the Song of Mary, is found in Luke 1. Here is the beginning:

⁴⁶And Mary said,

My soul doth magnify the Lord,

⁴⁷And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.

⁴⁸For He hath regarded the low estate of His

handmaiden: for, behold, from henceforth all

generations shall call me blessed.

⁴⁹For he that is mighty hath done to me

great things; and holy is His name.

(I apologize to those who prefer the more modern translations, but I like this one in the King James.)

This is famous as the response of Mary to the news that she will bear the Savior. Her song is often contrasted with the answer of her cousin's husband Zacharias, who received the news that his old and barren wife would bear John the Baptist. He said, "How can I know this is true?" to the angel Gabriel, which was a bad move on his part.

Zacharias gets struck dumb for nine months after that little breach of etiquette. Although there's no Emily Post for Angelic Visitations, it does appear that as a Levite and high priest he should have known better.

However, in re-reading the account in Luke, I noticed that the Magnificat does not in fact follow the Annunciation, but instead it occurs after the Visitation.

"The Visitation" By Edward Von Steinle

Putting that in normal language, the Song of Mary is not the Virgin's response to the angel Gabriel at all. She doesn't sing it until she goes to see her cousin Elizabeth.

She doesn't produce this beautiful song of steadfast faith until after she's had time to absorb the shock of being visited by an angel and getting pregnant by the Holy Ghost and all. Plus, it's also after Mary receives confirmation of the word of the angel through her cousin, who calls her "the mother of my Lord."

All Mary says to the angel Gabriel is, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."

One could interpret that as a shell-shocked, "Um. Okay." (speaking of more modern translations...)

So although it's certainly true that Mary had great faith, greater than the priest Zacharias of course, she was not some idealized paragon who immediately spouted poetry upon hearing the most shocking news anyone had ever received. She took her time and allowed God to work through her, and when the time was right she was ready to sing her beautiful song.

In other words, the greatness of Mary's faith was not found in her own abilities, but in her willingness to allow God to demonstrate His power through her. And God was patient with her, allowing her to seek the comfort of her cousin Elizabeth and giving her time to learn to accept the strange new thing that had happened to her.

This should be a comfort to those of us who aren't quite ready to sing praises to the Lord after an unexpected turn in life sends us reeling. God understands that we need time, and He is patient with us as well. He wants us to submit to His will, but He doesn't force us.

But if we are able to respond, "Behold the handmaiden of the Lord," He'll bless our timid acquiescence with abundance.

He will take our, "Um. Okay," and turn it into poetry for His glory!

Rest and Trust

"Mother and Child" by Mary Cassatt

My three-year-old daughter loves to sit in my lap.

She will call out "Sit with me, Mommy! Sit with me!" while I'm doing the dishes or reading the mail or working on the computer. All she's asking me to do is sit on the couch and let her rest in my lap. That's it.

She has no other agenda when she calls for me to sit with her. Small children live in the moment. She is not like me, thinking of the dinner that must be made soon, and why is the cell phone company still billing me wrong, and oh my goodness when will bedtime get here?

She just wants to be with Mommy.

Psalm 131 says:

¹ My heart is not proud, O LORD,
my eyes are not haughty;
I do not concern myself with great matters
or things too wonderful for me.
² But I have stilled and quieted my soul;
like a weaned child with its mother,
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

³ O Israel, put your hope in the LORD
both now and forevermore.

That's what we should be like with God. Instead of worrying about what's coming next in life, we should simply rest in Him.

My little girl does not concern herself with dinner because she knows Mommy will take care of it. When she is hungry, she asks me for food, and she is certain she will get what she needs.

If only I could be like that with God!

Lord, help me to rest and trust in You, like a child trusts in her mother.