Another important date associated with the coming of Spring occurred last month: March 25, the date traditionally celebrated by the liturgical churches as that of the Archangel Gabriel's visit to Mary informing her of her blessed status as the mother of the Messiah.

All churches have venerated Mary in a manner ranging from the normal respect accorded to the admittedly extraordinary mother of the most extraordinary Person ever born, to her elevation as a deity equal to Him and worthy of similar worship.

I wonder if those of us who have respected and loved Mary in the normal way -- as a very saintly, but entirely human young woman -- have ever considered that her saintliness or purity was not her most extraordinary quality. I wonder if we have ever considered that Gabriel's announcement was not a divine proclamation; but was actually an invitation. Or even more candidly, it was the acceptance of an invitation of Mary's own.

The Messianic prophecies had been in the literature for centuries. Even if the Scriptures had been unavailable to women in hard copy, it's unthinkable that women would not have known about these prophecies.

Can we not consider that the prophecies were an invitation, a proposal, a question, put out there by the Creator to all women? The most serious question ever asked; in the words of a popular love plaint based on Romeo's under-balcony appeal: "Whatcha gonna do aboutt itt?"

In fact, this was an invitation to an audition. And Mary prepared herself immaculately--pardon the pun. She saturated her mind for years, as soon as she could think, with the promise of God to make happen the humanly impossible.

Her purity was probably physical as much as intellectual and spiritual: she probably kept her body clean from harmful substances and in good condition. (As Princess Di was heard to say, "I had to keep myself tidy for what was to come.") She hoped, she prayed, she visualized, but above all, she believed. No: Perhaps above all, she desired.

Folks, it's all about desire and faith. Mary wanted this more than anybody has ever wanted anything. And she believed. And she prepared. She believed that God could do what He said He could, and she believed that she, even she, could be the one. And God honored this extraordinary, unimaginable desire and faith with the reality.

Indeed, "blessed is she that believed" (Luke 1:45, KJV). Indeed, let us all honor, arguably, the greatest-ever partner with God -- the greatest possibility thinker, ever born.