The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…”

Luke 1:35a (NLT)

Here’s another word for you to think about: overshadow. It sounds ominous. And, in a way, it is.

OVERSHADOW: To cover with shade; to cover with anything that causes darkness; to render dark or gloomy.

Uh… hold on. This is the angel speaking to Mary, the girl who was to become the mother of Jesus. She was supposed to become dark and gloomy?

Look at it this way:

I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I life my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20 (NLT)

When Mary said to the angel, I am the Lord’s servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants, this is what she meant. She was willing to sacrifice herself—her own will, her own desire, her own ambition—to do what God had chosen her to do. Had she not been willing to take a back seat to her own life, the Holy Spirit would not have been able to come upon her.

Here was a young girl preparing herself for marriage. No property of her own. No education (that was reserved for males). Yet, when the angel of the Lord came to her, without question she chose to put her own life aside and take on the life that God had prepared for her.

Could I so easily set myself aside to be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit? Could you?

Daily Bible reading: Deuteronomy 33-34, Luke 1:24-56