Luke 1:34-38: in context

When the angel tells Mary she will bear the Son of God, she asks, how can this be, since I am a virgin? The angel answers that the Holy Spirit will come upon her and the power of the Most High overshadow her, and that the child will be holy, the Son of God. And he points to a sign: Elizabeth, called barren, has conceived in her old age, for nothing spoken by God is impossible. And Mary answers: behold, the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.

Mary's answer is one of the great responses of faith in all of Scripture: behold, the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word. Consider what she was agreeing to. She was a young woman, betrothed but not yet married; to be found with child would expose her to shame, suspicion, perhaps rejection by Joseph, even danger. The call was costly, bewildering, and far beyond her understanding; she did not fully grasp what it would mean or how it would unfold. And she said yes. She surrendered herself wholly to God's will, offering herself as his servant, and consenting to what he asked, let it be to me according to your word, before she knew where it would lead. Her yes was not a reluctant submission but a wholehearted offering of herself to God's purpose. There is a model here for our own response to God's will. God's call often comes to us as it came to Mary, costly, bewildering, beyond our understanding, asking us to consent to something we cannot see the end of. And the temptation is to hold back, to demand to understand it fully first, to insist on knowing where it leads before we agree. Mary shows another way: to offer ourselves as God's servants and to say yes to his word, let it be to me according to your word, trusting the God who calls even when we cannot see the whole. And notice what her yes rested on: the assurance that nothing spoken by God is impossible. She could surrender to a call she did not understand because she trusted the God for whom nothing is impossible, who could accomplish what he had promised. Our yes to God rests on the same ground: not on our understanding of how it will work out, but on the trustworthiness and power of the God who calls. Mary offered herself wholly, saying, let it be to me according to your word; and her surrender to God's will, trusting the God for whom nothing is impossible, is the pattern of a faith that says yes to God even when it cannot see the end.

When God's call comes to me costly and bewildering, beyond my understanding, do I hold back and demand to know where it leads before I consent, or can I answer as Mary answered, offering myself as the servant of the Lord and saying, let it be to me according to your word, trusting the God for whom nothing is impossible even when I cannot see the whole?