God is cray.

Have you ever thought about the crazy things that God’s done? Like bizarre, hard to believe things: talking donkeys, burning bushes with voices, that whole bit about Abraham sacrificing Isaac that I still can't seem to wrap my brains around.

Sometimes I think about what I would do if any of that happened to me today. Like, if I was chillin on the beach and all of a sudden somebody got swallowed up by a whale. I’d be like “Uh…Jonah? You need me throw you a snack? You’re gonna be there a few days.” And then the ocean opens up and a guy walks through on dry ground toward me. “Moses? Did you just walk across half the earth?! Sit down for a minute!” Wait, hold up, look at that boat! It’s massive! I’ve never seen a cruise ship like that before…oh snap, I’ve never seen storm clouds as big and gray as the ones behind it either. “Noah? You got room up there for my family? We like animals…”

We tend to think it’s just not a thing that this weird stuff happened because the stories have become so familiar to us. But the truth of the matter is, if any of these things happened in front of our faces, we’d be frantically trying to make sense of what was happening.

I think that’s exactly what happened to Mary when she found herself pregnant. as a teenager. in the middle of her engagement. as a virgin.

We like to write and sing about Mary’s song in Luke when she’s so seemingly good with everything, praising God and declaring His goodness. But do you know that those aren’t her words? That song isn’t really hers. She did the same thing that I think we would’ve done if we found ourselves in the middle of a weird God story. She looked back to another time when God had interceded to bring forth a baby that couldn’t otherwise have been.

The angel tells Mary that she’s going to have a baby - and that her 60 something year old cousin, Elizabeth, is also miraculously pregnant - and Mary goes to stay with Elizabeth for 3 months. It’s here, after she’s traveled to another town, after she’s with her own people, after she’s been encouraged by her family, after she has confirmation from Elizabeth that she really is carrying the Messiah they’ve been waiting for (based on her own baby flipping out with excitement about being in the presence of his soon-to-be cousin) that Mary’s song comes about in borrowed words. It’s here, in real time, not as an automated response to the angel’s announcement.

I can see Mary looking back, trying to make sense of her situation. See, she grew up in the Jewish faith. She would’ve known church history, the ancient scriptures. Her people had been praying for this Messiah to come for hundreds of years. (Sidenote: the prophesy of Isaiah they were waiting on to be fulfilled even said that he would be born of a virgin!) So she would’ve known of other times that God had done weird stuff. She would’ve known about Hannah.

Hannah was another Jewish girl who lived hundreds, maybe even a thousand, years before Mary. She was one of two wives of Elkanah. He loved her but she couldn’t have kids because God had closed her womb. (We don’t know why but if God says your womb is closed, ain’t no babies comin forth.) Elkanah’s other wife, Peninnah, was a straight mean girl, taunting Hannah about her inability to have children while she had multiple. In her heartbreak, Hannah cried and pleaded and prayed for God to give her a son. She prayed with such emotion and passion that the nearby priest thought she was drunk and told her to go home. God hears her prayer and 9 months later, Samuel is born.

Here’s Hannah’s prayer:

“My heart rejoices in the Lord!
    The Lord has made me strong.
Now I have an answer for my enemies;
    I rejoice because you rescued me.
No one is holy like the Lord!
    There is no one besides you;
    there is no Rock like our God.

“Stop acting so proud and haughty!
    Don’t speak with such arrogance!
For the Lord is a God who knows what you have done;
    he will judge your actions.
The bow of the mighty is now broken,
    and those who stumbled are now strong.
Those who were well fed are now starving,
    and those who were starving are now full.
The childless woman now has seven children,
    and the woman with many children wastes away.
The Lord gives both death and life;
    he brings some down to the grave but raises others up.
The Lord makes some poor and others rich;
    he brings some down and lifts others up.
He lifts the poor from the dust
    and the needy from the garbage dump.
He sets them among princes,
    placing them in seats of honor.
For all the earth is the Lord’s,
    and he has set the world in order.

“He will protect his faithful ones,
    but the wicked will disappear in darkness.
No one will succeed by strength alone.
     Those who fight against the Lord will be shattered.
He thunders against them from heaven;
    the Lord judges throughout the earth.
He gives power to his king;
    he increases the strength of his anointed one.”

And Here’s Mary’s song:

“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
For the Mighty One is holy,
and he has done great things for me.
He shows mercy from generation to generation
to all who fear him.
His mighty arm has done tremendous things!
He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
He has brought down princes from their thrones
and exalted the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away with empty hands.
He has helped his servant Israel
and remembered to be merciful.
For he made this promise to our ancestors,
to Abraham and his children forever.”

Do you see the similarities?! rejoicing in the holiness of the Lord. the fall of the proud and the elevation of the humble. Providing for the poor while the rich get nothing. a God who sees. generations and years of His faithfulness. There is no way that these are connected by coincidence alone. Mary looked back at Hannah. Mary borrowed Hannah’s words when she needed hope. Mary borrowed Hannah’s words when she found herself in both an extremely intimate situation and - at the same time - the recognition that she was part of a much bigger story.

Mary’s hope was found by looking back and remembering the faithfulness of God in the past. She didn’t buck up and say “let’s see the good in this, let’s look on the bright side.” That’s optimism. And while optimism certainly isn’t a bad trait to have, it’s strength doesn’t compare when held to hope. Optimism is based on what we can see in our current circumstances. It’s based on our attitudes, our perspectives, our focus. It’s reliant on our ability to look narrowly and block out the bad. But hope? Hope is based on a person. It’s about trust, faith and choosing to believe that better is to come, regardless of what we can see. Hope isn’t dependent on us at all. It’s trusting in the unkown future based on God’s faithfulness in the past.

What area of your life feels so impossible that it’s hard to even hope? If you can’t believe, if you can’t find your faith, if everything feels so far gone that you can’t see God in your situation, borrow someone else’s. Just like Mary did. Send your prayer requests to me. I am happy to help you lift them up. But keep lifting up, looking up, listening up.

Hope can be as surprising as a precious baby becoming a crucified man who rises from the dead so that we can keep on living, too.