Reflections
I couldn't believe my ears!

I couldn’t believe my ears. Of course, I knew about angels everyone did. We had heaps of stories about them. But angels appeared to other folk, important people like Abraham, or Jacob, or Gideon, or Tobias but not to girls like me. And yet I did encounter one – at the well. The family had run out of water and I was asked to fetch some more. It was late morning and the well was deserted. Usually there was someone around and it was a good place to exchange news and gossip as we filled up our jars, but on this occasion there was no-one, or so I thought.

I’d just started to lift my pot when I felt a presence, I can’t begin to describe him, but I was conscious of a radiance and a beauty that glowed with heaven. Then the voice clear, musical, yet awesome. I nearly dropped my jar in terror. "Fear not, Mary, the Lord is with you." He knew my name; no more than this, he knew me. Nothing was hidden from him, my fears, my dreams, my inmost longings. Not only this but he also bore a message for me that both thrilled and appalled me. " Hail! you who enjoy God’s favour." It was as if I was more important than him, a mere slip of a girl on the brink of womanhood more important than the archangel himself. Yet there was nothing special about me coming as I did from a poor family, in a poverty-stricken hill top village where most lived in caves rather than in proper houses. Nonetheless he greeted me as if I were royalty.

I was awestruck, dumbfounded, perplexed, thrilled, and yet deeply troubled. But more was to come. "You have been chosen by God to bear a Son, whom you will name Jesus. He is the expected one, Son of the Most High, a greater than David as his reign would never end."

"But I am still a virgin," I stuttered, "How can I bear a child?" "The Spirit of God will quicken your womb," came the calm reply, " you will be mother to God’s own Son." It was then that I felt a surge of power and love shoot through my entire body. " Believe in the God of miracles as your cousin Elizabeth is now six months pregnant."

Elizabeth? Elizabeth! who had longed and prayed for a child for years without avail. At that time an elderly woman devoted to God, but hurting inside because she felt unfulfilled and childless. She was with child. It was a miracle indeed! So if God could cause that to happen could he not undertake for me? I would leave the explanations, and the implications to him. With a fearful joy I said "Yes, let it be." Let God have his way, I would be his servant. I did understand what it would mean then, the pain, the shame, the tears and the joy, but I am

 so grateful to have been chosen, so glad to have said, "yes."

Donald Dowling, Christmas 2000

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