" Look at Mary herself. This girl, no more than fifteen, near the bottom of the social ladder, knew that if she surrendered to God she would go even lower. Yet she did so willingly, and went through the agony of watching her son be tortured and die young. Think of all the darkness she embraced when she said, “I am the Lord’s servant.” Yet look! Today most people in the world know who she is. Because she humbled herself and became a servant, she became one of the great people in history. This vividly illustrates that “those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12) and that “whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it” (Matthew 16:25). "
― Timothy J. Keller , Hidden Christmas: The Surprising Truth Behind the Birth of Christ