Today the Church celebrates the Feast of the Annunciation… the time when Mary said ‘yes’ to God.  This year the Feast was moved from it’s date of March 25 to today because it fell during Holy Week.

I have been thinking a lot lately about all the ‘yes’ moments in my life and where they have led me and where that ‘yes’ has sometimes led me astray.  I am much more cautious nowadays about saying ‘yes’ than I used to be when the word just rolled off my tongue before I could even blink.  I am much more protective of my personal time, less impulsive to jump into the fray and I am not necessarily happy about that and maybe that is why I have been thinking about it and wondering what that is all about.  Still have not figured it out.  What about you?  How do you respond?

I think about Mary today, a very young woman, who has been invited to partner with God in the incarnation of the Christ child.  I think about her ‘yes’ and how her life changed in an instant and it seemed she never looked back-she only asked how can it be and then responded, “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord.  May it be done to me according to your word.”

Would that I  had the courage and faith of Mary to not count the cost, to not be afraid and to look forward and not back and to enter into each opportunity with joy and faith that God never leads us where he will not protect us.  To say ‘yes’ to the changes that life brings, ‘yes’ to journeys that take unexpected roads, to the people we least expect to come into our lives and who change us ( and perhaps we them).  Psalm 40 tells us, “Here I am, Lord, I come to do your will.”