The Visitor

Gabriel came to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. He was sent to a virgin pledged in marriage to a man named Joseph, who belonged to the house of David. Her name was Mary. Before she spoke a word, before she knew there was anything to answer, the messenger had come to her.

The account gives no description of the room or of what she was doing when he appeared. It names the town, the man she was pledged to marry, and the woman herself. Then Gabriel spoke: “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words. She wondered what kind of greeting this might be. The words announced favor, but she did not yet know what that favor would ask of her. She had heard the greeting; she was still trying to understand it.

The angel continued: “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end!”

There was a name for the child before there was a child in her arms. There was a throne, an ancestral house, a kingdom without an ending. Gabriel’s announcement reached forward beyond anything Mary could watch unfold in a single lifetime. But it began with something that would happen to her: she would conceive, and she would give birth.

Mary asked about that beginning. “How can this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?” She did not ask about David’s throne or how a kingdom could last forever. Her question concerned the first thing he had told her, the thing on which all the rest depended.

The angel replied, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. Look, even Elizabeth your relative has conceived a son in her old age, and she who was called barren is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”

Elizabeth’s name brought someone Mary knew into the announcement. Her relative was expecting a son, though she was old and had been called barren. Six months had already passed. While Mary was hearing news of what would happen to her, something she had not known about was already happening in Elizabeth’s life.

Gabriel had answered her question and given her that other woman’s name. He had not described the days ahead with Joseph, or the journey to a birth, or the words she would need when she spoke to anyone else. The account leaves those things beyond this meeting. For now, Mary had the message and her answer to give.

“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it happen to me according to your word.” Her answer was brief after all that Gabriel had said. She called herself a servant and accepted the word that had come to her.

Then the angel left her. The conversation ended there, without another question or a further explanation. Mary remained, with the name Jesus spoken over her future and the news of Elizabeth already six months along. There was someone she could go to, someone whose own unexpected child was growing even now.