Today’s passage is the apostle John’s version of the Advent and Christmas stories. For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been reading Matthew and Luke’s stories about angelic visitations, miraculous births, virgin births, and custom stars. Now that I read John, those stories seem downright prosaic. Can we safely say that John is something of a mystic?
We find a pretty amazing offer in this passage: each of us can have our own miraculous birth. Just like Jesus, we can be children of God, not as a family right, not out of some carefully laid plan of our own or our parents, but by the power and the gift of God. Sounds nice, but I have to admit that this concept of being a child of God can sometimes feel a little nebulous to me. The best way I can get a grasp on it is through the idea of family resemblance. John is saying here that people will say of us, ‘You’re a chip off the old block,’ or, ‘You really take after your mother.’ But the parent we’re a chip off of is God. Just like God, we can bring peace and grace and truth and light into any situation.
I find myself responding like Mary: ‘But tell me, how will this be?’ It seems a bit far-fetched, seeing who I am, in myself, right now.
I think God’s answer is the same as the angel’s: ‘The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.’
God, I do pray that by your Holy Spirit, you’ll make me more like you.
