How Can This Be?

 "How can this be?" Luke 1: 34

Sometimes a passage jumps out at you. you've read it many times before, but this time, it strikes a chord. In the first chapter of the Gospel of Saint Luke, I found this verse interesting, "I investigated accurately everything from the beginning..."

I can imagine this writer, St. Luke, amazed at what had occurred and desiring to come to the truth. He interviewed many of the disciples and people involved in this out of the ordinary series of events. Many saints and theologians believe Saint Luke was able to interview Jesus’ mother because of all the intimate details he has revealed in his gospel. In Luke 2:51, he wrote, “His mother treasured all these things in her heart.” 

What would he have found when he spoke to her? A woman still amazed, still in awe at God's goodness? In spite of all she had gone through? The stigma of her virgin pregnancy, the flight to Egypt, knowing hundreds of babies were being slaughtered because of the search for her Son, and ultimately the horror of seeing her Son hanging on the cross, mutilated, humiliated, seemingly defeated.

"How can this be?" she asked. How can this be that God chose me? 

How can this be that God would want to make me part of His plan to save humanity? 

How can this be that I would carry the mysteries of the universe in my womb?

Like Mary, God chose us for a unique purpose. We may still be wondering what it is. We may have many ‘why’ questions, but one thing is sure. If we put our lives in God’s hands, we can ask like Mary, “How can this be, that Someone so omnipotent and mighty chose me, so insignificant and full of failures, to be loved, and ultimately to be with Him forever?”