The news that plans for the United States to attack Yemen had been leaked to journalists over the messaging platform Signal hit the headlines this week. My initial reaction to this news was one of shock and surprise – not that such plans existed, but at the callousness and carelessness with which they were being discussed and shared.

Last Tuesday, 25^th March, was the Feast of the Anunciation of our Lord. On this day, we celebrate the extraordinary moment in which the most important news and the most momentous decision was handed over to a young woman called Mary. In a few short weeks, we will celebrate the greatest feast of the Church’s year, the feast of Easter. In John 20, we read of the encounter between the risen Jesus and Mary Magdalene, the apostle to the apostles, who was tasked with sharing the good news with the other disciples. Again, the most important news was handed over to a woman called Mary.

Both these women reacted with shock and surprise when the news of God’s loving plan for the world was handed over to them. It was not a surprise that such plans existed, but a shock to these two women that God was seeking their involvement, their collaboration. Such was not the way their world operated, nor is it often how ours operates: neither Mary, the mother of our Lord, nor Mary Magdalene, were powerful people. They were not government officials, and their word would not have counted for much. And yet they were trusted to undertake this great work, of bringing God’s presence into the world, and making it known.

God’s plans for us are unlikely to arrive in a group chat (though they may!). Sometimes it can be so hard to trust that God has any plans for us at all. But when they do come to us, we can at least trust that they are good: ‘For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.’ (Jeremiah 29.11)