December 5 Integrity “… to a virgin engaged to a man …” Luke 1:27 God is truly very strange. He does things in the oddest manner. A young, honorable woman engaged to a reputedly godly man is “blessed” by God’s intervention. What is God thinking? Doesn’t He care about His own reputation? How about the reputation of those He wishes to favor? How strange that God should decide to honor his faithful servants with an awe that corrupts their reputations. The strangeness of God causes the misfit intersection of honor with awe. He shatters image and righteousness. He refuses to limit His engagement with this world to the rules of human religiosity. We encounter this strangeness as God brings human dishonor to a woman who has honored Him. And, He calls this His favor! This intersection comments upon human righteousness. Not that Mary was unrighteous, but that we seem unable to think through the mind of God. Therefore, we are hopelessly unable to determine true favor and true righteousness. Only God can make those determinations. Integrity is more a matter of harmony with the Spirit of God than it is harmony with rules of righteousness. God regularly expresses Himself contrary to human propriety and expectation. Perhaps we should be even more open to God’s working of unreasonable miracles. Faith should not be so hard. We exercise it more than we know.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 14:42:34 +0000
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