Greetings Favored One !!!

"She struck the angel Gabriel as hardly old enough to have a child at all, let alone this child, but he'd been entrusted with a message to give her, and he gave it. He told her what the child was to be named, and who he was to he, and something about the mystery that was to come upon her. "You mustn't be afraid, Mary," he said. As he said it, he only hoped she wouldn't notice that beneath the great, golden wings he himself was trembling with fear to think that the whole future of creation hung now on the answer of a girl." Frederick Buechner, Peculiar Treasures

Frederick Buechner's account of the Annunciation portrays a wonderful picture of the future of the whole creation resting on Mary's answer to God. The angel tells Mary that she has been chosen to bear God's son, the Word of God. One can only wonder what this experience must have been like for her. Mary eventually came to believe the Angel's message, and was blessed to be the first to experience the reality of God incarnate, and the first to love our Lord Jesus, even while he was yet unborn. Yet for that single moment, all of creation waited in hushed silence for her answer. One can almost picture angels and archangels and all the company of heaven leaning forward, with fingers crossed behind shimmering wings, waiting for Mary's response.

We know that Mary said "YES". On behalf of all of humanity, Mary said yes to God.

As we journey through Advent, we hear the angel's greeting "Greetings, favored one, the Lord is with you". This greeting comes in the middle of frenetic, chaotic, everyday lives. Yet in this greeting we are once again reminded that God is still asking to reside in us. We, like Mary, are being asked to be bearers of the Word of God, in a broken and troubled world. One can almost picture angels and archangels and all the company of heaven leaning forward, pausing, waiting in hushed silence for our response.

Take time out from the decorating, the last minute shopping, the holiday cooking and baking, and listen with the angels for the response of your own heart. May you, like Mary, answer"YES" to God.

Faithfully,
The Rev. Carlotta B. Cochran
Executive Director