Who wants to be a millionaire?

Well, shoot, who doesn’t?

But you don’t really expect to be one. Most of us struggle along, paying the bills. You may be financially secure, or less so. But you make your peace with the fact that a fancy Porsche is out of your price range.

Occasionally, thanks to the lottery or some game show, one of “us” hits it big. Millionaire! It’s a really compelling story! It resonates with our hearts – we’re happy for the schmuck who won, and maybe even a little jealous.

The larger context makes the millionaire mirage look a little shallow. Over a thousand women report domestic violence to the police in this country every day. Over a million children are victimized by sexual exploitation worldwide every year. About twenty children under the age of five perish from malnutrition every MINUTE, globally speaking.

It’s not a perfect world, some might remind me. That’s true. What do I expect?

I do hold in my heart the hope that tomorrow might be a better day across the world, and I know I am not alone in that absurd hope. Many, many people are doing concrete things to help the less fortunate in this world. And the nightly news parades a relentless supply of miserable stories, night after night. It almost numbs you.

“Run of the mill” stories don’t pack a wallop like a natural disaster or a military invasion. When confronted by disaster, our human hearts recoil in horror. Most of us flinch to hear of the high human cost of such events. Suffering and death are not “ok” with us. We sense, at the core of our being, that we were NOT created simply to suffer and to die.

The story of Christianity is that the suffering and death of Jesus Christ on the cross is the source of our redemption. Jesus is our entry point into the world our hearts were truly created to embrace. But Jesus’ story didn’t begin with the cross; rather, the gospel begins with the warm embrace of his mother, Mary.

There had been talk of a Messiah, someone who would come to reveal the fullness of faith, hope and love to God’s chosen people. Mary found herself full of grace, and it was done to her, “according to the angel’s word.” What did she expect?

The Magnificat records a few of her thoughts, although we can’t know for sure exactly how she said it at the time. “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has looked with favor on his lowly handmaid. From this day, all generations shall call me blessed.”

The exact Greek translation of handmaid is, “doulee,” pronounced doo-lay. It means, “female slave.” Ponder that a minute. Mary is visited by the angel, and becomes pregnant (out of wedlock!), and proclaims herself God’s slave. And then goes on to praise Him in the highest of terms. Merciful. Powerful. Just.

The young girl, full of grace, understands that what has happened to her is beyond human understanding. She, a mere creature, has been chosen by the Omnipotent Lord to bring forth His Son, the Anointed One of Israel. He’s God…and she is not God.

Neither man nor woman is God. We stand before the creator completely equal in soul and body, yet somehow created in the image and likeness of the same Divine King. Alone in the ancient world, the Jewish people understood that the poor man in rags and the rich man in fine linen were equal in the eyes of God. Women didn’t exactly have full citizenship, at least in the earthly order. You can’t tell me Mary hadn’t noticed that.

And yet the Woman is given the honor of bringing forth the Messiah. This is not what anyone expected! And do we really expect this? Our Divine and Holy God, brought forth as a human infant. The ultimate humility is Jesus, the Son of God, clothed in human form and subject to all of our human vulnerabilities. True God and true man…begotten, not made. And brought forth from a woman.

He prepared her as only God can. And her soul clearly was ready, even if her intellect was in awe. What does it mean to be the slave of a loving God? Mary somehow united the joy of being a creature created by God with the awareness that His mission would require every ounce of her faith to perform.

Our hearts do yearn for the divine, and we sense (rightly) that all is not right on this planet, that there is a serious disorder in our midst. Mary’s joy is an anticipation of the fullness of redemption. Do we dare to follow her in receiving Christ with great joy…and humble ourselves in servitude to the One who has come to set us free?

I’m not sure that every surprise millionaire knows what to expect. Neither do we as Christians, as men and women called away from our expectations to a richness we haven’t seen before. The story of the handmaiden is that God’s grace will prepare us for all that He asks us to do.