Hope In Difficulty

Mary grew up in a rural area of northern Israel in Nazareth and came from a family with no great social influence. Like most young women of her time, she would have been happy to marry a man she loved, start a family, and please God by being the wife and mother she was called to be. While not special by cultural standards, Mary knew she was special to God. Believers know their value is in God’s evaluation (2 Cor. 5:17; Eph. 2:10)! Mary was probably a teenager when introduced to Joseph, who was likely a distant relative. In Jewish marital customs, after spending time together, Mary would make her feelings about Joseph known to her father and he would present Joseph’s father with the marriage agreement. God often works through cultural norms to do something culturally spectacular. Just as with Joseph, Mary agreed to sexual abstinence and purity as part of the contract. As a young Jewish woman, her desire was to honor God and her husband by preparing herself for marriage. This would involve learning domestic skills and preparing to become a wife and mother. Mary was an ordinary woman in an ordinary town with ordinary looks expecting an ordinary future.Sometimes the mundane sets the stage for the miraculous!