Lk.1:26-28 – Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the descendants of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. And coming in, he said to her, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.”

I wonder what it was like when the angel Gabriel came to see Mary that day? Was it in the middle of the night awakened from her sleep? Maybe, she was walking alone through a field near her home or maybe sitting in her room one afternoon. No one knows but that moment was life changing. The first thing the angel said was ‘Chairo caritoo’, “Greetings favored one’, but if we don’t pay close attention we will miss the power of those words. Chairo is closely associated to the word charis or grace. It literally means to rejoice or be filled with joy. The second word is the word charitoo. Here is the definition from Strong’s Word book of that powerful Greek word.

“charitoō; to grace, i.e. indue with special honor: — make accepted, be highly favored.

– be highly favored, make accepted;

to make graceful charming, lovely, agreeable

to peruse with grace, compass with favor to honor with blessings”

Now let’s chew on this for a moment, the angel is telling Mary to be filled with joy because she is chosen by God for a very special purpose. She was chosen to give birth to the Messiah, the very Son of God. Now here is the best part, it wasn’t that Mary deserved it, it is just that God was pleased to use her for this purpose, she was chosen by God.

You can go through the Bible and find this is the way the Lord works. He chose David, great – great great… grandfather of Mary (28 generations) , the youngest son in quite a large family, from herding sheep to be the King of Israel. He would have a descendant who would reign forever and be the Lord Messiah. He chose Abraham from a family of idol worshippers to be the father of the nation of Israel, He chose Moses from a life of exile to lead the nation of Israel to the Promised Land, and He chose Paul the Pharisee to write most of the New Testament and open the Gentile Nations to the Lord.

He chose me on a hot night in August of 1973 to be a missionary to New Orleans. God’s plans are not like human plans, His ways are not like our ways. So maybe He has a plan for your life. Charis charitoo; rejoice my chosen favored one, your life is going to be much more amazing than you could ever know.