“Offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship” (Romans 12:1).
I’m sure God had chosen Mary to bear Jesus, yet he allows us to choose to be chosen! It is one thing to give God our Sunday attention or five minutes of devotional time, but another matter entirely to yield our bodies–our whole lives–to do His will. Yet we live within our bodies and cannot serve him without them. Didn’t the apostle Paul remind us of this when he wrote, “I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship.” (Rom. 12:1).
Presenting our bodies to God is part of our spiritual worship. My husband defines a body as “an earthly vehicle whereby a spiritual entity gets around in a physical environment.” God dignified the human body through creation, the incarnation, and in redemption. Mary teaches us that we need to yield all of ourselves–body, mind, and spirit–to him.
How many Marys, Lord, were there?
How many times did you try?
How often did Gabriel venture
Through the myriad stars of the sky?
How many minuscule humans?
How many a devout little maid
Heard your request for a body
And answered you thus so afraid?
“My love, Lord, you have it.
My will, Lord, ‘tis thine.
I, to mighty Jehovah, my worship assign,
But my body, my body, my body ‘tis mine!”
How many Marys, Lord, were there,
Till Gabriel found her at prayer?
How many angels in glory
Were wondrously envious of her?
And how did it feel, Lord, to see her,
And watch at your feet as she fell,
As she yielded her soul and her spirit
And gave you a body as well?
“My love, Lord, you have it.
My will, Lord, ‘tis thine.
I, to mighty Jehovah, my worship assign.
And my body my body, my body ‘tis Thine!”
PRAYER
Lord, thank You for coming into our world to do for us what we could never accomplish! Thank You for such a beautiful story of love and sacrifice that gives such deep meaning to this Christmas season. Help me remember Mary’s wonderful example and find ways to offer more and more of myself to You. Amen.
