Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Wrestling With Wonder Sample
Wrestling With Wonder Sample
Wrestling With Wonder Sample
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 6
7/29/14 9:13 am
Contents
Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Bible Versions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1. Unexpected Interruptions: The Angels Arrival . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
2. Blessedness Redefined: A Trip to the Hill Country. . . . . . . . . . . 35
3. Rough Journeys: Pregnant, on a Donkey, Really? . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4. Life in the Barn: The Birth of a Savior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
5. Embracing Mystery: Pondering the Shepherds Visit . . . . . . . . . . 74
6. The Soul-Piercing Sword: Simeons Blessing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
7. Running in the Dark: The Trip to Egypt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
8. Not Why but Who: The Search for a Son. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
9. The Fine Art of Waiting: Water and Wine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
10. God, Have You Lost Your Mind?
Jesus Family Takes Charge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
11. When Nightmares Come True:
Jesus Arrest, Beating, and Sentence. . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
12. He Still Cares: Johns New Job. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
13. In the Dark: At the Foot of the Cross. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
14. Breaking and Remaking: It Is Finished. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
15. A Shocking Transformation: Resurrection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
16. The Wonder of His Love: Pentecost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
17. Eyewitness and Servant: Mary Tells Her Story. . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Author Note. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 9
6/23/14 4:22 pm
Introduction
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 13
6/23/14 4:22 pm
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 14
6/23/14 4:22 pm
Introduction
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 15
6/23/14 4:22 pm
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 16
6/23/14 4:22 pm
Introduction
17
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 17
6/23/14 4:22 pm
C hapte r 1
Unexpected Interruptions
The Angels Arrival
Luke 1:2638
19
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 19
6/23/14 4:22 pm
20
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 20
6/23/14 4:22 pm
Unexpected Interruptions
I roll the bread and pat it, warm beneath my hands. A
rustling sound f lutters the air behind me. I turn.
And see him.
A man but not a man. Like nothing I have ever seen before.
Breath squeezes from me. I cannot speak. Cannot even
gasp.
He stands there in blazing white. Tall and strong. Shining.
Extraordinary.
Terrifying.
And I know he is not a dream, not a vision. Somehow, he
is real. And he is here.
The air stills, slows, shimmers around this one who is come
from God.
In the silvery silence, he approaches me. He raises a hand.
Who are you? The question whispers through my mind,
unspoken, chasing a hundred others that are swallowed in his
glory. But I need no answer. I have heard of such things. Of
such ones.
He is a messenger from God. In Nazareth?
He looks at me. Gently, fiercely, his eyes like fire in my soul.
And he speaks.
Be glad. A common word. Rejoice. An uncommon greeting. And from him, nothing is common at all. Then he says a
word I dont understand. A word that speaks of extraordinary
grace. He calls me favored one. Me? Doesnt he know? I am
an ordinary girl in an ordinary town on an ordinary day.
But not anymore.
The Lord is with you.
And now I am trembling, troubled. What kind of greeting
is this? What does he mean?
He says it again.
Do not be afraid. You have found favor with God.
21
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 21
6/23/14 4:22 pm
22
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 22
6/23/14 4:22 pm
Unexpected Interruptions
ren one having a son in her old age. Wed prayed for years,
made whispered pleas at the temple. Elizabeth becoming a
counterpoint to my callthe virgin giving birth alongside the
barren one with child.
Nothing is impossible with God.
Nothing.
Do I dare believe it? Do I dare say yes? I know what it
means. Nothing will be the same again. No one will understand. How will anyone else believe? Can I bear the shame?
Can I bear the disbelief? And more, can I bear the beauty?
And the wonder?
And in this ordinary moment on an ordinary day in an
ordinary life, I feel the heavens waiting, breathless.
Will I say yes?
I am the Lords servant. I exhale the words. I am his
slave, his maidservant, his own creation. May it be done
to me according to what youve said. And so I accept. I
s urrendernot knowing what it means, these words I say,
but knowing that I mean them. And knowing that YHWH
himself hears.
My shining messenger smiles.
I tremble.
Then he is gone. And with him, everything I ever thought
my life would be.
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 23
6/23/14 4:22 pm
An Interruption
24
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 24
6/23/14 4:22 pm
Unexpected Interruptions
A Call
Just like me, Mary had been interrupted by a call to more. And
what a calling!
It began with an unexpected interruption in an ordinary, wellplanned life. Scholars believe that when the angel appeared, Mary
was twelve to fourteen years old, which was the traditional age for
betrothed girls of the time. Once betrothed, a girl was considered
legally (but not domestically) married. She lived in her fathers
house for about a year to prepare before being taken to her husbands home to begin a normal married life.
25
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 25
6/23/14 4:22 pm
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 26
6/23/14 4:22 pm
Unexpected Interruptions
27
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 27
6/23/14 4:22 pm
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 28
6/23/14 4:22 pm
Unexpected Interruptions
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 29
6/23/14 4:22 pm
thing is real. It means taking a step into wonder ... because life is
now holy.
But how can we know its true? How can we trust? We just
have to look around. Gabriel pointed to Marys relative, Elizabeth, once barren and now pregnant. See,
he implied, God has done the impossiTo follow
ble before. Hes doing it now in the life of
God means
someone close to you.
encountering him
It is the same for us. Look around you.
in the ordinary
See the lives of p
eople hes changed. See
the footprints of Gods power in places
and finding life
where hope seemed dead.
extraordinary.
And see them in all God has done in
It means the
the
past as well. For no word from God
impossible thing
will ever fail, Gabriel said (v.37), echoing
is real.
the words of the angel to Abraham and
Sarah in Genesis 18:14: Is anything too
hard for the Lord? God kept his promise
to a long-barren c ouple and the nation of Israel was born. He will
keep his promise to Mary as well. And to you. And me.
And Christ will be born in our lives, in our circumstances, in
our everyday encounters. Because Gabriel literally said, For every
word will not be impossible with God. That means everything
God says, everything he plans, everything he dreams, is now possible. Even a nation being born from a barren woman. Even a young
virgin from a backwoods, out-of-the-way village in Galilee giving birth to the Savior of the world. Even God transforming your
everyday, sometimes boring, sometimes messed-up, sometimes
confusing and frustrating and doubting and imperfect life into
something amazing for his glory.
God revealed himself to Mary, and he has also revealed himself
to us. He is the God of the impossible; he always has been. He is
the God who called us to joy, to abandon fear, to release our dreams
to embrace his.
30
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 30
6/23/14 4:22 pm
Unexpected Interruptions
A Surrender
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 31
6/23/14 4:22 pm
Rejoice?
Yes.
And surrender. Because you are highly favored. God is with
you. And that changes everything.
Can you accept it?
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 32
6/23/14 4:22 pm
Unexpected Interruptions
So in the great calls and in the small: rejoice, fear not, and submit. Whisper to God, Let it be to me as you have said.
Do you dare? Mary did. And so the adventure beganan
adventure that would look nothing like her expectations. She
would enter a life that at every turn seemed to go awry, where
nothing would make sense, where doubt and confusion, pain and
fear were her companions, where the Son of God himself would
seem to have lost his mind.
But she would find him on the journey and become who she
was always meant to be.
What about me? What about you?
Do you long for your own wild and wondrous adventure with
33
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 33
6/23/14 4:22 pm
34
9780310337409_WrestlingwWonder_sc_int.indd 34
6/23/14 4:22 pm
Learn More