The Birth of Jesus Foretold

"In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him 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 Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.” Luke 1:26-33

Luke, being a believer, a companion of Paul in his missionary trips and a physician by trade, found it wise to investigate eye witness accounts of how the gospel as they know of came to be, and started off writing how it all began, starting with the birth of the baby Jesus.

Here, he tells us how the angel Gabriel, showed himself to a Galilean woman, a virgin with the name of Mary and gave her the good news that she have found God's favor and that she will conceive and give birth to the Son of God.

Gabriel told Mary that "the Lord was with her."

And to "not be afraid."

And again, that she "have found favor with God." In the bible, once it is repeated, it must be something important to note.

Now, throughout Scriptures, the angel Gabriel has always been one who acted as God's messenger, entrusted to deliver important messages in His behalf.

What I found interesting is that with the Lord moving in our lives, (with or without an angel's visitation of course) it is quite normal to be surprised, or to even be afraid and particularly afraid to do the seemingly impossible.

And not that we are to just blindly follow. For the Lord does allow our limited human understanding to recognize what's going on and to trust in Him. Which we could see more clearly when we continue reading the next verses in Luke's historical account. And remember, with God everything is possible.

Sidebar: It is also interesting to note that all the names of angels as recorded in Scriptures are all masculine names. Or that they are always presented in masculine terms all throughout the bible.

Outside of the bible though, we see angels being presented in ways that may not be biblical. Some people ascribe to angels God-like powers to be venerated or worshipped or saint-like status to be revered and prayed to. And most are depicted as feminine and I am not completely sure of their origins or for any biblical basis for that matter, just food for thought and a cautionary word.