Why Was Mary so Young?

I am not Catholic, but I do think Mary was exceptional. I want to show you why, but to do so I need to mention Moses and Gideon. All three of these individuals have something in common: they received special messages from God.

While tending flocks in Midian, Moses saw a peculiar site. A bush was burning nearby and being quite bored with the usual bland desert scenery he let his curiosity get the better of him. God had a message for Moses that day and you can read about it in Exodus chapters three and four. Moses believed that God was calling him to a special task, but he did not WANT to do it. He tried everything he could think of to get out of it, and I wonder if I would have done differently had I been wearing his sandals.

Gideon also received a message from the Lord. You can read this fascinating story in Judges chapters six and seven. The angel of the Lord appeared to him and somewhat ironically said, "The Lord is with you, mighty warrior." Mighty warrior? Gideon didn't think so, but as he was patient with Moses, the Lord was patient with  Gideon. After putting forth some of the usual objections, he devised a rather unique test for God--a fleece test. It went like this, Gideon would put out a sheep skin on the ground and examine it in the morning. If the fleece was wet and the ground was dry then he would have his proof. God acquiesced. The next night however, Gideon was not satisfied, so he asked God to reverse the results for the next night. I think he was looking for a false positive much like a teenage girl taking her third pregnancy test. But, again God played along. Finally, Gideon went to battle.

Now we turn to Mary. She was by far the youngest of the three, and for that reason could be thought somewhat nieve. Regardless, she had a particular faith that is astonishing. She trusted God, plain and simple. I believe one of the most remarkable verses in the Bible is in Luke chapter one: "'I am the Lord's servant,' Mary answered. 'May it be to me as you have said.'" To be honest, this is a shocker. But, I am no longer as young as she was then.

Theologians differ slightly on the supposed age of Mary when she received this message, but it seems she was not older than sixteen and could have easily been as young as twelve. I have a theory that God chose such a young person to bear such a huge responsibility because anyone older might have responded like Moses or Gideon. I think this is something all adults should find sobering. Did not Jesus say that those who wanted to see the kingdom needed "faith like a child?" (see Matthew 18:3)

Simple trust in God can easily erode over time. Subtly we replace it with rationality and personal experience, and lose our ability to simply do what we know God says to do. Do you object to this? In First Corinthians chapter thirteen and verse eleven Paul said that when he was a child, he thought like a child, but when he grew older he put childish ways behind him. But, he was not talking about faith, he was talking about love.

I am not advocating checking our brains at the door whenever we sense the Lord's leading. Far from it. What I am saying is that we need to guard ourselves against unconscious faith atrophy. The best cure I know for this kind of malady is simply spending time with kids. Try it and see what happens.