August 6, 2011 – Luke 1 - 1:38

We have “how shall I know this” vs “How can this be”. Obviously the angel had the ability to read their hearts and not just their words, but I just wanted to focus on the words and see if there is a significant difference. The first thing we see is that there is an “I” in one of them. Zechariah felt he had to know more about God’s plan in order to believe it. Mary’s is not a selfish request, it is almost a request for what she is suppose to do. She is told she will have a child, but she does not know man. She could be questioning whether she is suppose to be with Joseph and from that they will conceive Jesus. What I think we can take from it is how we respond to God’s will in our lives. If we feel we are called to something are we asking God “how do I know this is what you want” or are we asking “how is this going to happen”. There is a difference between the two responses and we can see the underlining trust in one and the questioning in the other.