Feast of the Annunciation
Luke 1:38
Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word." Then the angel departed from her.
Not long ago my counselor asked me about my relationship with Mary. It took me a little by surprise because I hadn't thought much about it. I'm not much of a Mary person. So I asked her why Mary and she said "of all the saints Mary knows what it's like to lose a child". I had never really come at it from that perspective before. And until I lost my daughter last year I had never had reason to.
Now for the second part of this tangent, I promise it will all come together at the end. I have always been fascinated with the idea of people saying "yes" to God in the scriptures. I've mentioned this before in my reflection on the calling of the disciples. They just dropped everything and followed. I'm more along the lines of Moses, he made excuses about how he was the wrong person for the job. Or even Jonah, who was fine saying yes to God as long as he liked the people God was asking him to preach to.
But Mary's yes is one of the most intriguing. She said yes, without hesitation, to a task that could have gotten her stoned to death. To be mother to the Son of God! I often wondered if she would have said yes had she known what was to come. Would she have said yes if she had known the pain that she would have to see her son go through? I won't compare myself to Mary but I will say that I have a new perspective on that question and I can say, yes she would!
You see, 24 years ago I said yes to life in the form of an unexpected pregnancy. That yes led to 22 years of agonizing pain. Twenty two years of doctors, medications, treatments, hospitals. Years of sleepless nights while I held my daughter through coughing fits that would have put a grown man on his knees. Hours of holding her little hand as doctors and nurses poked her with needles looking for veins they were never going to be able to find, so that they could give her the medicine that would prolong her life but never save it.
But if I had to do it all again, I would. I would say yes. When you say yes to God, the road isn't always easy. I know that. Mary surely knows that. But the road is one that He will walk with you.
