Saying Yes

​How is “yes” vital to Advent? What does it mean to reply “yes” to a request? Hmmm.
 
This sounds like a straightforward, simple question, doesn’t it? Let’s stop and think about it for a minute. (1001, 1002, 1003, ………………………………………….1060).

Yvette Wyatt

​Whenever I need deep, philosophical questions answered, I take them to my experts: the 1st Pres PreK-K Sunday School Class. But this one was tricky for even these wise, young sages. Not entirely surprising, they approached this concept from the back door, from their 4-to-6-year lifelong experiences, the opposite side of ‘Yes’: “What does it mean to reply ‘No’?”
 
It seemed that pondering ‘Yes’ caused them to think about answering requests of their parents and what it might mean if they replied in the negative, rather than the affirmative. That’s sort of where our ‘Jesus loves us, Sunday school discussion’ felt a bit anxious (at least for this Oma): responding to a parent’s request with ‘no’ makes parents “get mad”, children “get in trouble”, and this trouble has outcomes, like “having to do push-ups”. (That made me wish my parents had adopted push-ups as the consequence for disobedience — thinking of how much better my health would be today!) As I processed what happened in this flipped-over conversation, I came to realize that, as usual, their wisdom continued to be spot on.
 
I’ll return to their innocent, yet insightful, roundabout processing of ‘yes’ as I close my thoughts. First though, I want to share my reflections on the “Yes” of God; “Yes” as the heart of Advent; and “Yes” as the central feature of our Love First mission. So, let’s start at the beginning.
 
In the beginning … God spoke “Yes” to all of creation, all of life, and all of love.
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“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were created through Him, and without Him nothing was created that was created. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of mankind. 5 The light shines in darkness, but the darkness has not overcome it”  (John 1:1-5).
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​When I searched ‘Creation is God’s’ “Yes”, the following summary was provided. It is exactly what I’d like to share, so it is simply copied, pasted, and notated:

“Creation is often viewed as God’s affirmation and love for His Creation. In the biblical account, God created the heavens and the earth with a single word, “YES!” This act signifies God’s power and intentionality, affirming everything He has made. The creation narrative emphasizes that God is deeply involved in our lives, inviting us to reflect His image and participate in His plans. As believers, we are encouraged to steward the creation we have been given and to live out our faith in ways that honor God and reflect His love in the world around us.”  God’s Story and You: Why Creation Is About More Than the Beginning | Bible Gateway News & Knowledge
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God’s “Yes” of creation was only the beginning of Love. God desires connection and relationship with all of creation and set in place the perfect plan for Love to continually expand. His grace and ultimate “Yes” are provided in the fulfillment of all His promises through the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ: 
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“For all of God’s promises have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding “Yes!” And through Christ, our “Amen” (which means “Yes”) ascends to God for his glory” (2 Corinthians 1:20).
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​Yet our Creator is not a puppeteer forcing actions onto His creations. Instead, we have a Lord who is a loving parent — a tender Mother, a generous Father — who desires we freely and joyfully offer to reflect the love shone on us by acting in faithful, trusting, and fearless obedience. The most beloved human example of how this life-lived attitude is expressed is the one who offers the “Yes” as the heart of Advent. The mother of Jesus. Mary’s “Yes” is the intersection, the pivot point, of the life of Jesus Christ.
 
The birth of the Savior was reliant on Mary, an engaged, young, and uneducated woman who experienced an angelic visit and was given a seemingly impossible message. Mary is told she has found favor with God, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, she will conceive and bear the Son of God. Yet, for this miracle to come to pass, she must give consent.
 
Mary could have allowed the frightfulness of this supernatural event, or the considerations of the dangerous cultural consequences of choosing to become pregnant, or not knowing what the future would look like, to simply respond, “No”. Yet Mary has lived a faithful life of loving and trusting God for what she needs. God has prepared and encouraged her heart. So, she chooses instead to offer her “Yes” and step forward into this unimaginable role to bear our Lord.
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​“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her (Luke 1:38). 

​Though this “Yes” was the most profound for her (and certainly all of humanity), she had a lifelong list of decisions that she needed to continue to choose, affirm, and offer her “Yes”. That’s how it is for all children of God and followers of Jesus Christ.
 
So, I will return to the start of this narrative, to the ponderings of my mind-bending preschoolers, to share how their thoughts should inspire our Love 1st actions. In their valiant attempt to process my question to them, “What does ‘Yes’ mean?”, they naturally turned to an area of greater experience: “What does ‘No’ mean?”. The nugget they ingeniously seemed to be mining was the concept of ‘obedience’. Saying “Yes” requires the trust and practice of being obedient. They simply defined that from the other side, “What happens when we choose disobedience?” It just took my aged and stiff mind a bit more thinking time to follow the indirect path of their resourceful brainwaves.
 
The Love 1st mission: We love God, others, and our community because God first loved us.

This response to God’s love is an act of obedience to the reciprocal nature of love.
 
In this season of Advent as we consider the gifting of Hope, Peace, Joy, and Love, may we be obedient to offering our unique “Yes” in the way Jesus Christ has prepared us. Like Mary, may we find ways to ‘bear our Lord’ in love, before the world. Even if it is only to be open to interruptions of seemingly insignificant opportunities to offer care, kindness, and connection.
 
Peace, Yvette

Mary & the Power of Yes