You know the Christmas Story is strongly reliant upon something that most

people find very strange.  It is reliant upon two people saying yes to God.  And saying yes in most unusual circumstances, to a proposal that seems most strange indeed.

We are all keenly aware of Mary and how she said yes to God,

and so came to be the mother of the Messiah,

mother of the one we call the Son of God,

mother of the one who would die so that we might live.

But have you considered how this Yes profoundly changed the course of Mary’s life?  How her willingness to trust the angel of God and to accept his word altered her entire world?