Is it acceptable to question God? It may depend on what your question is. Before the angel brought his amazing announcement to Mary, another character was giving similarly surprising news. The priest Zachariah was told by Gabriel that his barren wife would give birth to a son. “How shall I know this,” he asked? “For I am an old man and my wife is advanced in years.”

Gabriel responded to Zachariah with a stern rebuke for his lack of faith and rendered him mute until his son’s birth.

Mary asked a very similar question when Gabriel announced her miraculous pregnancy. “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” This time, however, the angel responded very differently. No rebuke. No punishment. He simply reminded her that, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

Why did Zachariah and Mary’s questions provoke very different responses from the angel?

Zachariah’s question for God, like many of ours, was a grasp for control. “How shall I know this?” He wanted a guarantee that what the angel said would really happen, the way a bank wants a guarantee before approving a risky loan. Zachariah’s question revealed a distrust of God.

Mary’s question was different. “How will this be?” expressed a desire for understanding flowing from a sense of amazement, but not a need for control. Her question to the angel was rooted in wonder about God’s ways rather than distrust of God’s character.

Life with God is full of mystery, and unexpected turns and questions naturally arise. Rather than burying our questions as marks of a weak faith, like Mary, we should express them openly, and we must also recognize whether our questions arise from a humble desire for understanding or from a sinful impulse for control.