Consensual Cooperation
LETTER BY GRACE POUCH
Some critics take issue with the Christmas song Mary Did You Know?
They contend that by implying Mary didn’t know everything Jesus would be and do, the lyrics cast her as a simpleton and a puppet in the Incarnational drama.
I agree Mary foresaw some key pieces of God’s coming kingdom (see her “song” in Luke 2). Her yes to God was informed consent. But she wasn’t omniscient.
Trying to honor Mary by imagining her to be all-seeing actually discredits her most praiseworthy attribute and the one thing about her story that we can emulate: trust-based obedience.
Trust is born from hindsight, not foresight. It is taking someone at their word because of their track record, not believing them because you can see the future. Mary had witnessed enough of God’s goodness and heard enough of God’s faithfulness to believe the angel when he said, “For nothing will be impossible for God.”
She’s like Abraham — a believer of unseen promises because she trusts the Promise-maker. Like Abraham, Mary is “blessed” on the basis of faith—trust woven with obedience. Consensual cooperation.
It’s good news that Mary didn’t know all that would come to be. Because while none of us will have her unique calling, all of us can welcome Immanuel and consent to his plan. The Lord wants you and me to also be “full of grace” and blessed as we cooperate with his kingdom. Mary models that we can even ask questions, and God will provide just enough information. But ultimately our yes is an act of trust despite the unknowns.
He came to that which was his own,
but his own did not receive him.
Yet to all who did receive him,
he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1)
Have your way, Lord. Let us receive You with a warm and joyful welcome, every time and every way that You come.
Grace Pouch
Content Manager
P.S. The deadline to apply for the 2026 – 28 cohort of the Renovaré Institute is February 1, 2026.
P.P.S. Renovaré Weekly will return on January 9, 2026. Have a joyful, blessed Christmas!
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LET’S DIVE IN...
CURATED BY GRACE POUCH
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1.
On this week’s Life With God episode, Nathan and Vivianne Foster discuss how to welcome Christ—looking to Jesus’ parents as a picture of consent, receptivity, and hospitality.
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2.
A short reading from Trevor Hudson’s devotional Pauses for Advent reminds us, “We celebrate Advent every time we welcome someone in Jesus’ name and on his behalf.”
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3.
In an excerpt from his 1933 Advent sermon, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes that Mary “knows better than anyone else what it means to wait for Christ’s coming.”
Grace Pouch
Content Manager
WORTH QUOTING
“There, where our understanding is outraged, where our nature rebels, where our piety anxiously keeps its distance — that is exactly where God loves to be. There, though it confounds the understanding of sensible people, though it irritates our nature and our piety, God wills to be, and none of us can forbid it.”
– Dietrich Bonhoeffer
The Collected Sermons of Dietrich Bonhoeffer
(source)
TO CONTEMPLATE
Virgin of the Annunciation
French ca. 1300-1310
(source)
In our data-obsessed world, we think having all the facts and knowing all the outcomes is what we need in order to make the right decisions. But in reality, we need only to be reassured that God loves us and his plan for us is wonderful beyond anything we can imagine. So listen with Mary to the angel’s words, and receive the part of this message that is true for you and for all people:
Rejoice, cherished one! The Lord is with you.
Do not worry and do not be afraid, for God is generous, and his blessings are yours to enjoy.
Jesus, who is God the Son, comes to order all things and to lead with ultimate clarity and goodness.
His kingdom is limitless and eternal.
For nothing will be impossible with God.
TO PONDER
A two-breath prayer:
[in] God with me
[out] Immanuel
[in] God with me
[out] Right here, right now