DISCLAIMER: Yes, we know there was no such thing as e-mail back then. It's unlikely that Mary called Elizabeth "Girl," and who even knows the name of Herod's guard? Certain aspects of this wonderful and beautiful story have been "tweaked" for dramatic purposes. Our goal is to look deeper into the story, to wonder what these people may have been thinking. We want to help your youth group see the birth of the Christ child as if it were happening for the first time. We'd like you and them to experience the joy and awe as they did so long ago on the first Christmas. FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT
Advertisement
To: Elizabeth
From: Mary
Hey, Girl!
You'll never guess what happened to me, not in a million years. I was going tell you all about it when I saw you, but I just can't wait. It has been a wonderful and horrible time. Joseph has told my father that there will be no wedding. That's the horrible part. Now let me tell you about the other.
Mother sent me to the well, just as she does every morning. I keep telling her that Rachel is old enough to fetch the water now, but Mother sends me.
Do you remember when we were little girls and Mother used to say we had to be good, we had to be pure and kind -- that maybe someday God might send the Messiah; and if we weren't good girls then God would go and look somewhere else? We laughed at her.
Lizzie, it happened.
God sent an angel to me. He was wonderful, Lizzie, just wonderful. At first, he was as tall as the temple. A giant. Then, I think he saw how scared I was and suddenly he was the size of any man, taller than Father, but not as tall as Joseph.
He was dressed all in white and had wings like a bird that he just seemed to fold behind him. I thought I was being punished, but he was smiling. He had the kindest smile, and Lizzie he smelled like sugar. Remember Deborah's mother? She used to make those cakes with the sugar and honey and pour cream on them for us? That's what angels smell like.
He looked at me -- and I'm not making this up -- he looked at me like he was admiring me, like I had done something so wonderful to make an angel proud. He said God loves me. He said that God had decided that I was going to bring the Messiah into the world. He said that I was the one. Then he told me I was pregnant.
Lizzie, I can't begin to tell you what that was like.
I told him he had the wrong girl. I love Joseph, but he and I had never…well, you know.
