In his book Miracles, C.S. Lewis says, “It is a Jewish girl at her prayers,” upon whom all humankind depended. “All humanity (so far as concerns its redemption) has narrowed to that” (chap. 14). Here she was, a teenager in what was considered in Galilee as an insignificant village, making her insignificant by association.

Her remote hamlet of Nazareth was so inconsequential that Jesus’ future disciple Nathanael quipped, “Can anything good come out of
Nazareth?” (John 1: 46, ESV). This fact likely shaped expectations that Mary might have had for herself and those that others had for her. She was a nobody.

But she was listening when God called and when she was called “highly favored” by an angel. Mary was about to be chosen for a special assignment, based on God’s grace, not her merit.

Mary’s name is from the Hebrew Miriam, like Moses’s sister, another protector of a special child. What a good start to a life of waiting upon God. To be highly favored, especially considering Mary’s low status in society—an unpretentious teenager in Galilee—required her complete and utter surrender, and she seemed to know it. The world was rescued because a girl was at her prayers—and obeyed.

Am I “at my prayers,” as Lewis says? Am I ready to hear from God when I am at my prayers? He calls each of us to a special purpose in His Kingdom. We are each highly favored in that way. Hearing then obeying, without fear, makes all the difference.