Troubled By God's Goodness

“In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.”
Luke 1:26-29

Many of us struggle with God’s goodness. In fact, its very common for people to attribute their own father’s shortcomings to God. We look at our father and think, since God is described as a father, he must be like our dad. And while God uses the term father to describe himself, this is only a metaphor for who He is. He isn’t just like your dad as far as his flaws, but he is like a father to us in how he loves us.

I know personally I have struggled to truly receive the love of the Father. When I think about my own sinfulness, I tend to think God is not as good as He is described in the Bible. Mary must have been somewhat like me. When an angel visits her with good news, she is troubled.

The angel says to her, you are favored and the Lord is with you. These are the same things he says to each of us, by the way. We are favored or shown grace by God and He is with us. He doesn’t leave us or forsake us. Mary hears this and it troubles her, so she tries to discern what type of greeting this was.

Now think about this, you have an angel appearing to you (most of us could stop right there and just be in awe that an angel would appear to us) and you are troubled. Mary was receiving good news, but it clearly upset her. Have you ever been troubled by the good things in your life? Perhaps something good has happened to you and your first thought was something along the lines of, I doubt this will last or something bad is coming, good things like this never last for me!

You may be able to relate to Mary. She hears this good news and she is not just troubled, but it says she was “greatly troubled.” This wasn’t just something that caused her anxiety, it was really bothering her. She hears that God favors her and he is with her and she simply cannot believe it. She cannot accept that God would love her in that way.

This really is the story of Christmas. It really is hard to believe that God would love us in this way. When we think about how God inserted himself into history to save us, its hard to accept. It troubles us. If we are honest, we are greatly troubled by it. Who are we to receive His grace? Who are we that he would descend from his throne to be with us?

Grace is very troubling indeed. We don’t deserve it. We cannot earn it. Yet, God gives it away. He gives us that which we don’t deserve and Christmas is the perfect picture of God’s grace. It troubled Mary and it troubles us, but the end result is the God is good to us. It may trouble us, but his goodness overcomes our own lack of understanding.

Prayer - Father, thank you for sending your Son to us and giving us that which we do not deserve. Our hearts may be troubled at thinking about your goodness, but Lord help us to receive it in spite of that. Help us to be like Mary who said, “let it be unto me according to your word.” Amen.