On this Fourth Sunday of Advent we hear the phenomenal story of the Annunciation. You have heard this story many times. When we hear it, we can tend to think “Oh, isn’t that a lovely story” and then just assume that Mary was kneeling and waiting for an angel to appear…and then when the angel ASKED her to be the Mother of Jesus…the Mother of God (Whoa…think about that phrase!!!), that she just said, “sure, no problem.” I am sure that this was not the case. Mary was a young Jewish girl. Scripture scholars think she was 12-14 years old when the angel appeared. She was engaged to be married to Joseph. The pregnancy that would occur as a result of her “yes” to the angel would cause so many complications. How could she explain all this…especially to Joseph? Despite all this concern, Mary said “yes.” Amazing! Did you ever stop to think of what would have happened if she said “no”? The whole history of mankind could have been drastically different! A simple “yes” put in place a series of events that shook the world. What does this have to do with us? We need to say a courageous and generous “yes” to God as well. Our “yeses” to what God wants of us often requires a great deal of courage on our part because it can involve going against the tide of what the world expects. It is by saying wholehearted and unconditional “Yeses” to Jesus that we will find our salvation…and bring others to Jesus as well. The good news in today’s scripture message is not only that God is making provision for the salvation of His people, but also that He has a plan for each individual person….that’s US! In many cases, our work for God seems rather ordinary, but each ordinary task which we carry out, fits into God's plan in ways that we cannot yet understand. God desires, not so much the skill of our hands, but the love of our hearts. Jesus in the Manger reminds us of what God has done and is still doing for us. So…what are we doing in return? Let us show our gratitude to God by living as true followers of Christ, saying “behold here I am, Lord, to do thy will”…just like Mary did! Three men were pacing nervously outside the delivery room at a hospital when the head nurse came out beaming. To the first she said, "Congratulations, sir, you are the father of twins." "Terrific!" said the man, "I just signed a contract with the Minnesota Twins and this'll be great press." To the second man the nurse said, "Congratulations to you too. You are the father of healthy triplets!" "Fantastic!" he said. "I'm the vice-president of 3-M Company. This'll be great P.R.!" At that point the third man turned ashen and ran for the door. "What's wrong, sir? Where are you going?" called the nurse. As he jumped into his car, the man shouted, "I'm dashing to my office to resign. I'm the president of 7-UP!" That's exactly what Mary was feeling as she listened to the angel spell out what God wanted of her: "Virgin birth?! Are you crazy? Who's going to believe that? I'll be stoned to death as soon as the neighbors see I'm pregnant! Dear God, what are you asking of me?" GOSPEL QUESTION OF THE WEEK: How strong…and long-lasting…are the “yeses you give to God?