Say Yes to God

It’s May. And if Jesus is going to be born on December 25, then in May, Mary has been pregnant for four to six weeks. Do you think she’s wondering exactly what it was she agreed to when she said, “Let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38 NRSV)?

Here is what Mary said yes to:

She said yes to an embryo lodging in the lining of her uterus,

to cells growing and multiplying inside her,

to giving her own nutrients and hormones and oxygen to someone else.

She said yes to sharing her breath,

and her avocado toast, and her oranges,

and her nightly scoop of Rocky Road.

She said yes to indigestion, exhaustion, nausea, mood swings, sudden tears, stretch marks, achy breasts, swollen feet, sciatica that shot up the backs of her legs every time she took a step.

She said yes to social stigma. To the possibility of losing her partner and the possibility of losing her parents’ respect and affection. She said yes to letting people judge her without knowing her story. She said yes to raising a child even though she didn’t have much money and couldn’t be sure that she ever would. She said yes to a future that she couldn’t imagine—like every parent does, choosing to bear life in a world where every life will end in death.

Here is who Mary said yes to:

She said yes to the God who told Abraham that his descendants would multiply like embryonic cells, that they would become like stars, like sand.

The God who hovered like breath over the surface of the waters.

The God who sent manna and quail when God’s people walked a rocky road in the wilderness.

The God who let anyone into the family—who met women who were outcasts, Rahab and Ruth, and truly saw them.

The God who made a humble shepherd boy into Israel’s greatest king.

The God who had dwelt in pillars of fire and smoke, in a tent and a tabernacle, in a temple, destroyed and rebuilt.

She said yes to a God who said:

“Heaven is my throne

and the earth is my footstool;

what is the house that you would build for me,

and what is my resting place?

All these things my hand has made,

and so all these things are mine,

says the LORD.

But this is the one to whom I will look,

to the humble and contrite in spirit,

who trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:1–2 NRSV)

What is this same God asking me and you to say yes to, today?

Like Mary, we bear the Word of God—Jesus lives in us. The book of James is traditionally considered to be the work of Mary’s other son—James, the brother of Jesus—and when he wrote in chapter 1: “Welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls” (v. 21), it’s easy for me to imagine him thinking of his mother in that line.

Mary welcomed with meekness the Word implanted in her, and the Word brought salvation.

The Word implanted in us is our salvation and continues to bring salvation. To understand how to bear that Word well, we can look at Mary.

Bearing Jesus means—for Mary, and for us—being willing to be stretched and marked. Perhaps it will leave us achy and tired. Perhaps bearing Jesus forth into the world will mean sharing our meals and our breath and our blood. Perhaps it will mean being willing to accept social stigma or losing the respect of people we care about or accepting a life of little means in a backwater town under the thumb of empire. Perhaps it will mean giving our love to people and plants and animals and songs and poems and all the beautiful things of this earth, knowing that they will die, as Mary knew, Jesus also would die.

But because of Jesus, we can do this: we can follow Mary’s example of humility. We can do this because the one we bear in our bodies is the one who holds us and all creation together in every moment with God’s love—the one who has conquered death and has promised to make all things new.

–Written by Amy Peterson. Used by permission from the author.