A Surprise Visit

“And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God.  And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a Son, and shalt call His name Jesus.”  Luke 1:30-31

When Mary’s cousin Elizabeth was six months along in her pregnancy, the same angel, Gabriel, who had brought the news to Zacharias, Elizabeth’s husband, also visited Mary.  She was engaged to Joseph, but they had not yet come together as husband and wife.  Some Bible scholars believe she was rather young, maybe 13 to 15 years of age.  It was common for girls to marry at a young age during that time.  I think that the young girls back then were more mature than girls of that same age group are today chiefly because life required young folks to become responsible adults while still teenagers.

When Gabriel appeared to Mary, he greeted her very respectfully and honorably, assuring her that she was blessed among women.  The “politically correct” crowd has recently tried to find fault with the way that God chose her as if she wasn’t given a choice about the matter.  If it was up to them, they would have insisted that she have an abortion.  Thank God she loved God and was extremely honored that He would choose her for the delivery of the Savior of the world.

This extraordinary attention from Gabriel did frighten her, though.  When someone goes out of their way to generously compliment us, we become suspicious assuming that they want something from us.  Mary did not become suspicious, but she did wonder at Gabriel’s greeting.  He told her that she would have the honor of giving birth to God’s own Son, the One whose kingdom would never end.  She asked how that could be since she was a virgin.  Gabriel explained that the conception would be a miracle brought by God through the Holy Spirit.  He then informed her of her cousin Elizabeth’s pregnancy, another miracle of God because Elizabeth was past childbearing age, but had longed for a child.  Her baby would eventually play a very important role in introducing Jesus to Israel.

So here Mary was being informed of two miracles at the same time.  The angel said that with God nothing shall be impossible.  Mary and Elizabeth lived in different cities, and therefore it may have been sometime since they had seen each other.  Soon Mary would leave to share her news with Elizabeth and to celebrate the coming births of two miracle babies.  Some folks have trouble believing that a virgin can become pregnant without a human father.  The way that I look at it is that if God can create the world out of nothing without man’s help, then He can certainly create a Baby without man’s help.  He could have sent Jesus to earth in a variety of ways, but He wanted His Son to live life on earth just as we do from birth until death so that He could identify with the human experience.

Tomorrow, we will join Mary when she visits with Elizabeth to share her good news.