Music Monday: The Servant of the Lord

On Friday, the lovely Susannah from Simple Moments Stick hosted her monthly Faith & Fellowship link up.  This month's topic is "The Servant of the Lord."  It is so fitting for this time of year to reflect on Mary and how she so willingly and without question accepted God's plan for her.....

....carrying a baby when she was an unmarried virgin woman.

Whoa.

In case you're not aware, that was kind of a huge "No, no" back in Mary's time.

Here's what happened:

"God sent the angel Gabriel....to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David.  The virgin's name was Mary.  The angel went to her and said, 'Greetings, you who are highly favored!  The Lord is with you.'  
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be.  But the angel said to her, 'Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God.  You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus....'  
'How will this be,' Mary asked the angel, 'since I am a virgin?'
The angel answered, 'The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God....'
'I am the Lord's servant,' Mary answered.  'May your word to me be fulfilled.'"  (Luke 1:26-31; 34-35; 38 NIV)

Mary doesn't go all.....human....on the angel.  She only asks one question.  She wants to know how it will happen since she's a virgin.  She doesn't ask, "Are you sure the Lord wants me?" or "Do I have to?".  She doesn't say, "That sounds nice, but no thank you."  or "But what will everyone think about me?".  She DOES say, "'I am the Lord's servant....May your word to me be fulfilled."

What does this have to do with music, since it is, in fact, Music Monday?

I sang this song in church on Sunday.  It's called "You're Here".  It's a song by Francesca Battistelli, and it's about Mary on the night Jesus was born.

Of course, we don't know for sure if Mary knew the ultimate sacrifice that baby Jesus would pay by dying on the cross to save our sins, but she sacrificed her reputation, the possibility of losing her fiance, and her body to bring the Savior into the world.

Without question.

If only we could be the humble Servants of the Lord that Mary was.

The Bride of Christ

Have you met, Susannah?  She is a wonderful girl who blogs over at Simple Moments Stick.  I love reading her blog.  She truly has a heart that follows after the Lord, and she inspires me.  Last month, I linked up with her for "In His Image."  This month, the topic is The Bride of Christ.

One of the first things that came to mind when I saw the topic for this month's link up was a passage from Ephesians.  It likens marriage between a man and woman to that of the relationship with Christ and the church:

"Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.  Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior.  Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.  In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.  He who loves his wife loves himself." Ephesians 5:21-28

That can be a lot to take in...especially all of that "submitting" stuff, but all you strong-willed women, don't go running out on me just yet.

I do not think that God intends for us to be doormats.  I do not believe that this passage suggests that we bite our tongues, lay down, and get walked all over.  Don't forget that after we are told to submit to our husbands, the husbands are told to love their wives.  What I do think we are being told is to respect our husbands as we respect Christ.  No one but Christ is perfect.  Sure, we get mad at all of the stupid some of the things our husbands say or do.  We're HUMAN.  But if we truly love him, we learn to accept those things, forgive, and keep on loving him anyway.

Think about how many times Christ does that for us.

It really puts things into perspective doesn't it?

Each day is a new day to start with a clean slate.  Those dirty clothes in the middle of the floor?  Pick them up, and go on.  Christ erases our slate each time we humble ourselves, come before him, and ask for forgiveness.  If He can do this for us, so undeserving, it is certainly something we can do for a person we pledged to love "for better or for worse," isn't it?