Reflections on the Sunday Readings for 12/21/08 by Dawn

You can find all of this week's Scripture at www.usccb.org/nab/122108.shtml

Mary said, "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord.
May it be done to me according to your word."
(Luke 1:38)

Isn't today's Gospel passage amazing? The Annunciation. It's so much more than announcement though. It's is a moment in time that forever changed the course of human history - God becomes human. Isn't is just like God to use a teenager, not someone from a well-to-do, well educated, well connected family, but a teenage girl from the country who was to become the mother of God. Awesome.

There are many reasons I love this story. First of all, Gabriel appeared to Mary in the midst of an ordinary day to share with her God's message. It wasn't a high holy day, she wasn't in the Temple... it was just a normal day and this messenger from God shows up. That's an important reminder for me, and for all of us. It is in the midst of our ordinary life that God sends his messengers with words of comfort or of challenge for us. Although it's not usually with angels (that we know of), He sends his messages through many conduits - but how close are we listening? For me, God speaks often through other people, sort of like in today's first reading - God speaks to David through Nathan. There is so much noise in my life, I often times miss the message. I have to remember to take time to listen in the ordinariness of the day.

I tend to like to have plans for my life. Maybe not step-by-step details, but a general idea of where things are headed in the next few years. As I reflected on this Scripture earlier this week it struck me that when Mary said yes to God, she just said yes... she didn't ask for a four year plan, or want specific dates so she could put them in her calendar - she didn't even doubt that God could do what Gabriel said, she just wondered how. How often do we feel the prompting of the Spirit to do something, but convince ourselves that it's not the right time in our lives - maybe in a few years when the kids are grown, or when we've retired and have more time to give to God? I often convince myself that whatever God is asking is impossible for me to do, so I try to do something else and end up failing. How much easier my life would be if I could just say: "Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word."
What is God asking of you today?



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