Lent - Risking It All

Today, believe it or not, marks nine months from Christmas!  It is also the day we celebrate the Solemnity of the Annunciation.  This is an exciting feast day for all Christians, although many of those in Protestant denominations fail to see the full significance of it. The Angel Gabriel came to a young girl in a small, out of the way, insignificant town, and told her that she had found favor with the Lord. He uses these words, "Hail Mary, full of grace..."  With these words, the angel announced that Mary was full of grace.  When something is full, you cannot fit any more into it. The angel goes on to announce that Mary will be the mother of the Messiah. For her part, Mary, full of grace, with her heart fully turned to God, accepts.  Her "Yes" is the beginning of the life of Jesus on earth. No sooner had she given her consent, when inside of her Jesus began to take on human nature. 

Today we do not grasp the danger she put herself in. Today, our morals are more, shall we say relaxed.  In our world, nothing is thought of pregnancy before marriage.  I am not saying this to judge anyone, it is just a fact. In the time of the Messiah, there was a long courtship period when the couple was said to be betrothed to one another, in effect they were man and wife in the eyes of the law. This period would be used by the husband to prepare a home for his bride. The man and woman had the rights to sleep together but the normal thing was to wait until the wedding. 

From the moment of Mary's "Yes," she was pregnant. What did she do? She left to visit Elizabeth and stayed there three months, coming back three months along in her pregnancy.  She told Joseph and he must have almost died because the one he loved appeared to have been unfaithful. He could go to the priests and denounce her or he could pay to have her transported elsewhere to have her child. If he told the priests there would have been a quick examination of Mary and when found to be pregnant she would have been condemned to death by stoning.  Joseph was a man full of love for Mary and he resolved to have her sent away to have the child. He later was filled in by God in a dream and he took her into his home and they were man and wife.  Both of them risked everything but they also took God at His word and the story of our salvation and God's infinite love for his wayward children moved forward. 

Each of us is here on earth because there is a mission that we have to complete. This mission cannot be done by another.  We may be asked to take a risk for the Kingdom. The question is simply; "Are you ready?"  So many of our brothers and sisters have been asked to shed blood for the faith in the middle east where Christianity took up root and prospered from the earliest time. These modern-day martyrs risked their all in the name of God and His Son, Jesus.

So, like Mary and Joseph, are you ready to turn your world upside down if God asks you to do something?  Do you want to remain safe and secure or are you a risk taker for the Kingdom?