I love the Bible
sometimes we read texts so many times that we miss things. today, i was reading through the story of Jesus’ birth from Luke’s gospel. I had intended to get to the Magnificat - Mary’s song of praise to God for his promise of her son the Messiah. I love this song. But in reading the story preceding that, with the angel announcing the news, I actually stopped and laughed at this part form Luke 1…
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a village in Galilee, to a virgin named Mary. She was engaged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of King David. Gabriel appeared to her and said, “Greetings, favored woman! The Lord is with you!”
Confused and disturbed, Mary tried to think what the angel could mean. “Don’t be afraid, Mary,” the angel told her, “for you have found favor with God! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be very great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. And he will reign over Israel forever; his Kingdom will never end!”
[pause here - my response at this point, would be "awesome - I'm going to have a son who will be all that!!!" Mary's response...]
Mary asked the angel, “But how can this happen? I am a virgin.”
wait a minute, did you say I’m having a baby?? never mind all the rest of that stuff you said, you know I’m a virgin, right?