I’m singing “According to Your Word” tonight at St. Barnabas’ Lessons and Carols service. We’re doing six of the traditional nine lessons in our service, and the third in our line-up is Gabriel’s message to Mary from God, and her response, from Luke, chapter 1. Her answer of simple, total obedience is what the song is based on, of course.
The personal references in the verses reveal something of my state of mind when writing it. I, like many others, have sure spent my share of time trying to wriggle out from under the will of God. I guess this song was a plea for the Lord to please see that this was my desire, even though I so often fall short of this sort of total surrender. Oh, the blessings that poured forth from Mary’s act of simple, total obedience! If we could only see the blessings that could come from our own.
In this season of love and humility, when so many are suffering and hoping and celebrating and remembering: Lord, whenever and whatever you may ask, let our answer be the same, simple, faithful answer of Mary.