Incomprehensible AND Knowable

What can Mary teach us? This month we’ll be spending some time with Mary the mother of Jesus. She will lead us into a space in tension. The tension of God’s incomprehensibility and the comfort of knowing Him.

To begin read Luke 1:26-56.

As you read through the verses, write down what sticks out to you. What does Mary know? What does she know about God? What does she know about the world? What doesn’t Mary know?

Meditation

God is Incomprehensible

Job 42:1-6

Then Job replied to the Lord

“I know that you can do all things;
    no purpose of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’
    Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
    things too wonderful for me to know.

^“You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak;
    I will question you,
    and you shall answer me.’
⁵ My ears had heard of you
    but now my eyes have seen you.
⁶ Therefore I despise myself
    and repent in dust and ashes.

Isaiah 55:8-9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
“As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God is Knowable

Jeremiah 9:23-24

This is what the Lord says:

“Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
    or the strong boast of their strength
    or the rich boast of their riches,
 but let the one who boasts boast about this:
    that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness,
    justice and righteousness on earth,
    for in these I delight,”
declares the Lord.

1 Corinthians 2:2

And so it was with me, brothers and sisters. When I came to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness with great fear and trembling.  My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God’s power.

Reread Luke 1:26-56 slowly.

Confession

As we enter into time with God, confess the ways you want to know more than you do about your life, your future and what God is doing. Invite the Holy Spirit to uncover the parts of you that God is inviting into the light. Knowing that God is more powerful and holy than we can ever comprehend AND merciful and forgiving is a comfort during our time of confession.

Reread Luke 1:26-56 one more time. Invite God to speak to you about Mary, the birth of Jesus and His plan for your life.

The rest of the time is for you and God. Invite Him to speak or sit with Him in companionable silence.

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