We have a record of what Mary said to God, likely prayed
it to God, yet it is almost poetic in nature, refined by a middle teens child,
more a woman at that age than overindulged contemporary girls now. She worked,
hauled water, firewood, gardened, cooked soup, gathered eggs, baked bread,
washed clothes by hand. She had seen other women give birth. She knew how
babies came. She was in the betrothal year of an arranged marriage when
Gabriel, an angelic creature convincingly communicated with her. Her childlike
faith believed his forecast that she would now bear an adult-sized
responsibility. "I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil 4:13). She was unfamiliar
with those words, which were written five decades later by Paul whose life was
transformed by the person to whom Gabriel announced she would give birth. She
did however understand the inner peace about which Paul would write. The
conception of the embryo within her without human impregnation was
incomprehensible then even as it is now. Gabriel told her, "nothing is
impossible with God." She told Gabriel, "I am the Lord's servant. May
it be to me as you have said." And it was.
