Luke 1:26-30

26 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth,
27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.
28 And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women.
29 And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be.
30 And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God.  KJV

This is a familiar portion of scripture. Mary is visited by the angel Gabriel who tells her she is blessed and favored by God. Let's take a look at how this blessing plays out in her life.

First of all, her fiancé, Joseph, believes she cheated on him with another man because he knows that the child she is carrying is not his and is going to not marry her.

When he does believe and accept that the child is conceived of the Holy Spirit, the rest of the world believes that Mary and Joseph, a godly couple, have committed fornication and had sex before they were officially married. Their reputations are in ruin.

Then while she is close to delivery time, she has to take a grueling trip through a wild country on the back of a donkey. When she gets to her destination there is not one clean, warm place where she can rest. She takes refuge in what for all intents and purposes are what we today call a barn and there delivers her child.

When they take the child for presentation to the Lord at the temple, a time of rejoicing, she receives the prophecy:

Luke 2:34-35

34 And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against;
35(Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,) that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
Imagine how we would feel if someone took our week old baby and held them in their arms and prophesied to us, that through this child a sword would pierce our soul.

Next, Joseph is warned that the child's life is in danger and they must take the long and arduous trip to Egypt to flee from Herod.

Back to Nazareth to live as quietly and obscurely as possible. Finally the son is grown and leaves home to fulfill the calling of God on his life.

She follows him, and sees him hated, beaten, spit on and finally crucified.

Although Mary, has other children she lives out her life with her son's friend and not with her family.

Blessed? If all this happened in today's society would we call Mary blessed. We hear sermon after sermon that if we are godly and obey the scriptures; if we read our bibles, attend church, witness for Christ, give offerings etc etc etc, we will live blessed lives.

When things go wrong in our lives we are often counseled that we must have missed God. If it all doesn't work out we must have heard wrong. If bad things are happening, we must have sinned or not understood the leading of God correctly.

If that is true, then Mary must have really missed it! So did Joseph! And John the Baptist missed it so bad that he lost his head!

Yet scripture says Mary was blessed. If we were going through all that hardship would we feel blessed! In the movie, Fiddler on the Roof, while contemplating this line of thought, the father asked God if He could bless some others for a little while.

It is often a challenge to stay focused in our Christian walk at times. For the Lord calls things not as the world sees them. From a common sense point of view, Mary does not look too blessed; yet it was she who was favored to bear the Savior. To bring the Redeemer of all mankind into the world, to nurture him at her breast, to bathe and care for him, to teach him how to talk and walk and all the other things that mothers do when they raise a child. What a fearsome responsibility the Lord found her worthy to fulfill. We are blessed by her obedience.

As we walk our lives let us not look to the opinion of the world to measure our success. Let us not look at our houses, cars and clothing. Let us not look at our salaries, promotion etc. Let us not look, pastors, at the size of our church buildings or the number of members. Visible success does not always indicate whether or not we are blessed or favored by God. Let us live by faith. We are all familiar with Hebrews 11:1

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

Faith is the conviction of things not seen. Let us leave the physical evidence of success, of blessing, of being favored behind us. Let us look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. For it is in Him we have life, blessings and joy.