Theotokos: In God's Eternal Plan

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed: he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.

Gen 3:15

This passage in Genesis is called the Protoevangelium ("first gospel"): the first announcement of the Messiah and Redeemer, of a battle between the serpent and the Woman, and of the final victory of a descendant of hers.  After his fall, man was not abandoned by God. On the contrary, God calls him and in a mysterious way heralds the coming victory over evil and his restoration from his fall.

The promise of the Messiah, like all of God’s decrees, is eternal.  God is eternal – standing outside of time and space as we know it – all of reality is present to Him at one and the same present moment.  In God there is no past, no future, but only the eternal present.

The promise of the Messiah was a decree for the Incarnation.  But that decree also required a choice of a mother for the Incarnation.  The mother for the Incarnation was Mary.  So Mary’s union with God is eternal as well.

The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways, before his works from of old. I was set up from eternity and of old before the earth was made. When there were no depths, I was brought forth, when there were no fountains abounding in water. Before the mountains were settled, before the hills was I brought forth. When as yet he had not made the earth... When he prepared the heavens I was there; when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep; when he established the skies above; when he made firm the foundations of the earth; when he fixed a limit for the sea so that the waters should not pass his commandment. Then I was beside him as his craftsman, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him... and my delights were the sons of men.

Proverbs 8:22-31

This text from the Old Testament is often attached to the person of Christ.  The personification of Wisdom is a common metaphor in Old Testament literature.  The early Church quickly saw this as a reference to Christ.  This is reflected in the New Testament.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God;

all things were made through Him and without Him was not anything made that was made.

John 1:1-3

In Him all things were created.

Col 1:15-16

Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God

1 Cor 1:24

The Incarnation was decreed from all eternity.  In her role as mother of Christ, the Word Incarnate, Mary enjoyed an eternal inseparable union with Her Son.