A few weeks ago I was hurting from surgery and feeling very discouraged. I said, through tears to my husband, “Where is the promised favor of the Lord, Jonathan? What happened to that?”
Later that day, as I was still thinking/sulking about the “lack of favor,” I heard in my spirit, “The favor of the Lord is often wrapped in tears.”
I’ve pondered this for days.
As I read the story of the birth of Jesus again this morning, this is what jumped out at me…
“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.” Luke 1:28-30
THIS!! This is the favor of the Lord I’m talking about! I want a “highly favored” message from an angel like Mary got!!
Except then you go on in the story… She is going to be pregnant and unmarried. Eek… the community (especially of that time) isn’t going to think that’s favor. She could be stoned for that.
She has to tell her fiancé… he is certainly not going to think that’s favor.
She has to travel, on a donkey, very pregnant…. I don’t even like a bumpy ride in a car pregnant. That doesn’t sound like favor. (Couldn’t she have skipped out on this census or someone “bless” her with a chariot to ride in?)
She gives birth in a stable? How gross and unsanitary! That doesn’t sound like favor. She lays her baby, the Son Of GOD, in a feeding trough? Shouldn’t someone who has found “favor with GOD” been paced in a palace with a golden crib? Now that would have been “favor!”
A man comes to her in the temple and says that her baby will change the world, but many will oppose him and because of HIM, “a sword will pierce even your own soul, Mary” (Luke 2:34-35). Nope… doesn’t sound like favor.
She has to hide her baby from a king who wants to kill him… where’s the favor in that? Why wouldn’t GOD just strike down the king? (That would have been my plan… eliminate the enemy! Now that would have looked like favor to me!)
She loses HIM at the temple. Listen if you have been a parent for 1 second, you know the fear of thinking you have lost a child. But…. she actually REALLY lost him. Some might call that a lack of favor. I would.
She watches HIM be hated, mocked, beaten, ridiculed, and even killed. As a mother, that doesn’t sound like favor at all. In fact, that sounds like anything but favor. (If it had been me, I would have chosen for 10,000 angels to come rescue HIM! Wouldn’t that have proven favor?)
The truth is, her life actually sounds hard and full of pain. Yet the Lord said she was blessed and highly favored.
And I was reminded…. “The favor of the Lord is often wrapped in tears.”
Because I bet Mary had some serious tears.
She might have been the most godly woman ever… but all of that would have brought some tears, I guarantee it.
And yet, Mary was blessed/favored above all women!! Why? Not because life was perfect. It wasn’t.
Not because things were easy. They weren’t.
Not because she had every material thing she wanted. She didn’t.
Not because everyone admired her. They didn’t.
Not because leadership respected her. They hated her.
Not because she looked favored. She looked anything but blessed.
She was highly favored because through her tears and pain, she carried, birthed, and raised the Son of GOD… who came to save the entire world!
Her favor was wrapped in tears.
My sweet friends… if your year or years have been full of tears and you wonder if perhaps you have missed the “favor of GOD,” please remember…
What the world sees as favor is usually not favor.
What you have endured may not look or feel like favor.
But our GOD is faithful. And HE will take the very things that should destroy you and use them for your good and HIS glory, if you will let HIM.
HE is using all of it… the pain, the loneliness, the fatigue, the sickness, the tears, the hurt, the hardships… and creating a beautiful story.
Perhaps a story that can even change the world….