Explain this …

Sometimes a person can have difficulty clearly and rationally communicating their circumstances when rattled by a traumatic experience.

A perfect example of this challenge to clarity are these statements made to insurance companies by policy holders shortly after being in an accident, as reported by AIDE Magazine:

– “Coming home, I drove into the wrong house and collided with a tree I don’t have.”

– “The other car collided with mine without giving warning of its intentions.”

– “I thought my window was down, but found it was up when I put my hand through it.”

– “I collided with a stationary truck coming the other way.”

– “The guy was all over the road; I had to swerve a number of times before I hit him.”

– “I pulled away from the side of the road, glanced at my mother-in-law, and headed over the embankment.”

If you think those events would be difficult to explain clearly, imagine you were a friend of Mary, who was engaged to marry a hardworking carpenter named Joseph. You can tell something is bothering your friend, and you push her to tell you what’s wrong. She finally takes you aside and says …

“I’m pregnant …”

Your face immediately betrays the surprise you feel.

” … and Joseph isn’t the father,” she adds.

Now your expression turns to shock, which sends your friend into an urgent explanation of how she hasn’t been unfaithful to Joseph, but that you’ve had a visit from an angel who revealed the real father is the Holy Spirit. She goes on to say that she hasn’t told Joseph yet, that she doesn’t know what to tell him, and asks for your help in what to say to her fiance.

You think … and you think … and you think …

“I got nothun,” is likely your response.

The reason Mary’s situation would be so difficult to explain is because she was facing a truly singular experience. We often hear encouragements of, “You’re not alone!” or how others have been where we are — but no one had ever been in Mary’s shoes, and no one would be after her.

There had never been a virgin birth.

There would never be another one.

So how do you explain that?

It’s likely Joseph would never have believed Mary if the same angel who explained to her the miraculous circumstances she was facing hadn’t also visited Joseph to explain why and how his fiance was pregnant.

Mary had a singular experience that made her utterly alone for a moment. But she would be encouraged by a heavenly messenger. Mary’s response was not to immediately panic for the words of an explanation or excuse, but to fully yield to the plan God had for her life, regardless of how crazy it might sound to others:

“Mary responded, ‘I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.’ And then the angel left her,” Luke 1:38.

While none of us will ever face Mary’s singular experience, we will all come to face times in life that may be difficult for others to understand, and hard for us to even attempt to explain.

What do you do then?

How do you deal with those times in your life when you feel alone and words escape you for describing how you feel or what you’re going through?

Do you search for explanations? Or excuses? Or do you yield to God’s will for your life at that moment?

Scotty