Balancing that bike

Jesus, help me have faith that I can learn what I need to! Amen.

An angel of God visited Mary and told her, "Congratulations! You're going to have a baby, and name Him Jesus." Mary was worried and scared. How could she be the mother of God? "The Holy Spirit will be with you," the angel said. "Remember, nothing's impossible for God." Mary answered: "I am God's servant. I'll do what you say."

This month, some kids are wishing for bicycles for Christmas. Remember when you saw older kids riding bikes without training wheels and wondered if you'd ever be able to do that? Now, you might ride just fine on two wheels.

If balancing on a bike sounds hard, imagine how crazy it sounded to Mary when an angel told her she was going to become the mother of Jesus! Mary was young and just about to get married; she might have been thinking about having children someday, but not yet -- and not a baby who was the Son of God!

Like riding a bike, being Jesus' mom sounded like something Mary could never learn how to do. What the angel was telling her seemed too complicated.

If you've learned to ride a bike, you know that the only way to figure it out is by trying it. When you think about it, you'll see that everything you have and everything you do had to be learned: You had to learn how to get dressed, how to play video games, how to be a good friend.

If you could learn all those things, you have faith that you'll learn bike riding without training wheels, too.

Mary had faith. She found it hard to believe that she could be the mother of God, but she had faith that God wouldn't give her a job she couldn't do. And, like a kid with a new Christmas bicycle, she probably found out it just took some practice at balancing!