YES!

Yesterday I received a birthday card from my brother-in-law that got me thinking. He wrote in thanksgiving that if it weren't for my and my wife's birthdays he never would have met our daughter. As I thought about it, it occurred to me how thankful I am that my mother decided to give me life, so that I could have a birthday. What seems like such a simple thing that I always take for granted is the fact that my mom didn't need to say "yes" to allowing me to be born. What I see as one of the two greatest gifts I have ever received could have just as easily not been given should my mother chosen not to give it.

The second of the greatest gifts I've ever been offered being eternal life, just as easily could not have been given had our Blessed Mother not said "yes" to being the mother of Jesus. Wow! What an incredible idea to process. I mean, God wouldn't make someone say yes after all. Would He? Isn't love given out of a freely made choice to give it. And Jesus being love itself means that Mary's yes was the most freely made choice for life ever made by one of God's creation. Why would God make a human do something that in and of itself goes against his very nature? How incredibly beautiful was the consent of Mary, the humble handmaid of the Lord. How amazing that God can bring something so wonderful as Life from the simple "yes" of parents in their openness to life!

Thanks Mom and thanks Blessed Mother.