ALIVE: Chapter 103, The Best Miracle

The parting of the Red Sea was amazing. You should have seen it! The people who had just experienced the angel of death passing over their blood-stained doors saw it. For the most part they were just glad to escape their bedraggled neighbors after all the plagues, and to be running away from fuming Pharaoh. Everyone was a mess psychologically and physically. The earth was like jelly under their feet; their minds were spinning. After all they had been through, walking through the Red Sea was not as scary as it would be for you or me.

Elijah was good too. Beating Baal by igniting-water soaked wood was perhaps the most magnificent gotcha-moment in the history of humankind. 

The most unlikeliest events demonstrate that nature can be manipulated. As predictable and as repetitive as our physical world is, the truth of the matter is, that it was created. The artist is greater than the art. The artist manipulates and manipulates until it is just right, and can go back and change it at any time. 

The artist can do anything except, as much as the artist may want to, the artist cannot enter and live in and among his work. Van Gogh cannot sit inside a swirl in the starry night, Shakespeare can’t have dinner with the shrew; Mozart can’t become a C note, he must always be human. 

The notion of Michelangelo crawling into the finger of God and resting there forever, disappearing from the earth, never to need food or sleep again is preposterous. All the creative imagination in the world can never merge with reality. It’s a law that cannot be broken by the most powerful dictator, or the most sinister criminal. Night cannot become day; they take turns.

We know that. This is the difference between human and God, between this creation and its Maker.

Joseph and the villagers of Nazareth eventually settled into their rhythm of life with Mary in town. His children liked her. They shared meals and laughed together. Her neighbors brought food and gifts to welcome Anna’s daughter home. Joseph and Mary would go for walks after a long day at the workshop, and Mary invited him over for supper from time to time. Deborah, as old as she was, continued to be the best friend, but her daughter Misha was in training for the role. Misha spent many happy hours chatting with Mary. They cooked together and planned the wedding feast, trying recipes. 

Mary enjoyed her new life. She settled right in. Every other early morning, except the Sabbath, she walked down her cobblestone street to the local well to fetch water. Mary’s muscles grew! 

Usually other ladies were also fetching their water and they would chat before carrying their loads home on their heads. On this morning though, Mary arrived so early that no one else was there. She was glad because she planned to cook with Misha and she didn’t have time to talk.

After she pulled the water-bucket up from the deep well, she sat to rest before hoisting it onto her head. While she sat there, the strangest thing happened. 

A large man suddenly appeared. She neither saw, nor heard him approach. When he spoke, she was sure he was an angel. 

He said to her,  “Hail, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 

She gasped! ‘Who is this and what kind of greeting was that?’ she thought but spoke not.

Gabriel paused to give her time to process his appearance. The other angels were busy keeping all the other ladies away from the well. Spilled milk, dirty diapers, whatever they could do, they did. 

Gabriel continued with the most earth shattering announcement ever uttered since God said, “Light Be.” Gabriel was proud to have been given this assignment, knowing that he was qualified by his previous announcements to prophet Daniel, and Tobit. The angel was magnificent, calm, compassionate, careful, just as ordered to be. 

After the initial shock of being visited by an angel, as she never knew anyone, even at the temple all those years, who claimed to see angels, Mary took a deep breath, opened her eyes wide, and waited to hear the message. 

Gabriel continued, “Fear not, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” There! He said it! Word for word just as he had been rehearsing for ages. 

Mary replied, “How can this be, since I have never known a man?” She didn’t know what else to say. The concept of God being the Father, the real Father, not just fatherly, was unheard of. Gabriel knew it was a silly question, but it was the perfect question from a young lady for whom nature was the only reality.  

Gabriel answered her clearly articulating every word so she could understand, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.”

Again Mary gasped! Even Mary didn’t know how seriously God accepted her parents’ gift of their child, or that the almighty God heard her own vows.  Especially since Mother and the high priest ignored Anna and Mary’s gift, God didn’t!  Mary was not used to anyone taking her vows and her parents’ vows seriously. This was new. Brand new. 

But Mary had indeed taken her vows seriously deep within her heart, and because of that she listened to the angel and accepted his announcement.

As she looked at Gabriel, two tears spilled out from her bright brown eyes. She felt more herself than she had ever felt before. It was as if she lived her whole life in preparation for this moment. She was no longer frightened. How could that be? But she wasn’t. She was humbled. 

Gabriel had a little more to say, “And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” 

Mary was happy to hear about Elizabeth. She knew how long Elizabeth had prayed for a child, perhaps as long as her own mother had prayed for her. “Oh Elizabeth! I must go to visit her.” thought Mary. 

Gabriel looked at her pensive face, awaiting her reply.

Mary broke the prolonged silence and said, “Behold, the servant of the Lord; may it be according to your word.” There was nothing else to say. It was simple and positive, just like Mary.

Gabriel nodded, and bowed to her. The tall angel in the form of a man fell to his knees and placed his hands and head on the ground before her and then vanished.

She was stunned. Mary sat there for a while, and still no one else arrived. She was much too young and innocent to be overwhelmed at that moment. She was just stunned. Perplexed and stunned. 

She wondered how it would happen? 

Mary composed herself. Struggling, she lifted the jug to her head and walked in the stately erect manner needed to balance the heavy jug on the cobblestone streets to her home. Having arrived, she carefully set the jug down not to spill any water and opened her door. She retrieved the heavy jug, brought it inside, set it on the table and gently shut the door behind her. Then she flopped down on mama’s chair and cried and cried. Mary was filled with awe and emotion. The angels around her were also in awe. 

God was about to enter His creation. This had never happened before. God allowed Moses to see his back, but never had the angels considered that He could condescend to become as minuscule as a zygote. Yes, God was in the still small voice, but this was even smaller. God peeled off a milligram of His mighty essence, begotten with the proclamation of Light, to enter nature! The light of the world entered the darkness of a human womb. The artist entered His creation. God became the material image and likeness of Himself. Adam was to be born and given a second chance.

The angels and Mary were both overwhelmed. They cried together. Mary cried herself to sleep on her mother’s chair. 

She awoke to a knock on the door.

“Hey sleepyhead! I have been knocking for a while. Are you well?”

Mary didn’t know what to say, and how much to say to Misha. Nor could she keep the event of the morning all to herself. She was bursting with emotion. It was too much for one person to hold in. 

“So, what are we cooking today?” asked Misha.

“I don’t know, but I got water this morning!” She said, parting with an glimpse of her morning miracle. 

“That’s good. Do you want to make soup?” 

Mary slid back into her former self, as much as was possible and gathered the tools, vegetables, beans and bowls. As the ladies chopped and chatted, Mary said without thinking, “Misha, I think I’m pregnant. I mean, I am pregnant. PLEASE don’t tell anyone.”

“Oh my!!! I promise.” responded Misha aghast at the news. “Do you have a wedding date yet? We need to finalize the menu!”

“Umm, I don’t know yet. We’ll figure it out.” Mary decided to change the subject quickly because she really could not say anything more. She didn’t even know why she mentioned that she was pregnant, but her angels did. They needed to let Joseph know.

“Joseph must be thrilled.” said Misha.

“Joseph!” she had forgotten about Joseph. How could she tell him? What could she tell him? Gabriel gave her no instructions as to what to tell people. She wondered if she could call the angel back and ask.

The rest of the afternoon passed in a haze. Mary went through the motions of cooking with Misha, who fortunately changed the subject many times. Misha had to leave to run an errand before supper. She gave Mary a sisterly peck on the cheek. Just as Deborah would have done to Anna. “Everything will be all right. You will make a fine mother! There is nothing to be nervous about. But you should marry right away.”

On her way Misha passed Joseph’s shop. “What a coincidence,” she thought. She wasn’t planning to visit Joseph, but she might as well pop in since she was there.

“Hello Joseph.”

“Greetings Misha; how are you today?”

“I’m fine. I came in to congratulate you. Mary told me that she is pregnant! I suspect you and Mary will be getting married soon. Well, I must be off! Shalom. I just wanted to tell you how happy I am for you and Mary.” After dropping the bomb, Misha turned and left. 

Joseph was dumbfounded and murmured, “Good bye Misha.”

Joseph had to sit down. Fortunately he was alone that morning, which as all the angels, and now you and I know, was no accident. 

“How could this be?” Joseph knew that he wasn’t the father. “Could it be that I don’t know Mary as well as I thought? Who could the father be? Oh that doesn’t matter, there are so many young bucks in town, it could have been anyone, and Mary is so lovely and so innocent. INNOCENT!

Oh no!!! Perhaps someone violated her and she is too ashamed to say anything!! Oh my poor Mary! Who could have done that? I will kill him! How could I have allowed her to live alone?! This is all my fault. 

But what if it wasn’t an assault? Perhaps now that she is in the world she was attracted to a younger man? After all, she hadn’t even seen young men. Oh yes she had; she would go into Jerusalem. Nevertheless, At this point I can’t even trust her to tell me the truth. It is impossible for me to marry a young lady that I don’t trust. I won’t broadcast this, but I can’t marry her. Let the father of her child marry her, or is he already married? The scoundrel. I will find another town for her to live in and quietly move her there. I don’t want to shame her, but she can’t stay in Nazareth, because I can’t marry her. How could I raise another man’s child?”

Joseph spent the rest of the afternoon fretting. He was glad not to have plans to visit Mary that evening. Instead he went to his home where his daughter had supper ready. Together they waited for his sons who were returning from a trip to the fishing village. 

“Why are you so somber this evening father?” asked James.

“I’ll be fine. I am just tired. In fact, I think I will retire early.”

The sun soon set after supper and the candles were lit. Joseph went to his bed and fell soundly asleep. It was the sleep of a man who had climbed a steep mountain. Poor Joseph. He was just growing comfortable with the idea of marrying this lovely young lady. His children liked her. What excuse could he give them that she was not to be in their lives? They had come to cherish her too. He must decide what to say that would not harm Mary. 

Joseph lifted his heavy worries and took them with him to bed. He even forgot to pray. Like a sick man, his routine was abandoned. Joseph slept fitfully all night. 

Moments before the speck of sun appeared at the precipice of the eastern mountain Joseph was given a vivid dream.

In his dream a large man, like the figure of a statue, like Gabriel appeared before him. He had a voice as deep as a base drum, but as clear as cool fresh air.  The angel came to relieve Joseph of his miserable fantasies.

The angel said slowly and distinctly to allow the message to penetrate into his troubled soul and to be believed, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins

All this is taking place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet Isaiah [7:14].

“Look the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel which means, God is with us.” 

After saying that the angel was quiet. He looked into Joseph’s green eyes as if to fix the words in his mind. Joseph did not forget that look until the day he died. 

When Joseph awoke from that fitful night’s sleep, he was shocked at the message, but it was a weirdly probably answer unlike his dark reasons. Joseph reckoned that it was more obvious than ever that the Lord had arranged his marriage to the young lady. Yes, he was not only to protect her as the chief priest wanted him to, he was also to have another son under his care. Suddenly, it all made sense. Not just the happenstance throne order, but she would need a father for her Holy Child. A young man would never do. He would want his own children. A young man would need what Joseph no longer needed. He prayed, “Oh Lord, You are indeed perfect in all Your ways!”

“But wait!” continued Joseph while lying on his bed waiting for the room to become fully lit, a Son from the Holy Spirit! What could that mean? How could that be? What would such a child be like? Joseph trembled at the thought. Such a thought was too great to be contemplated. He would have to wait and see. This was not a time to fantasize. It was a time to get out of bed and go to work. 

After that dream, Joseph stopped fretting about Mary. He went to his shop and added a cradle to his list of projects. He would visit Mary that evening. 

After Misha left, Mary was relieved that she hadn’t pressed her about the pregnancy but simply assumed what she assumed. Mary sat down at her table and enjoyed a bowl of the hearty soup. After the soup, she cleaned up and decided to rest. She was glad that Joseph was not coming over that evening because she had a lot to think about. Mary felt very sleepy, but she didn’t know why. As soon as the sun set, instead of lighting her oil lamp, she went to bed. 

The room was filled with angels debating how much to dull her senses to the miracle. Her guardian angel, having the most authority over her, knowing her from birth said that Mary could handle it. The other angels disagreed. She was too young and it was too fast. To the arguing angels amazement a throne descended from the throne room of God. All the angels were in a dither. Such a visit had never happened on earth before. The throne descended to tell the angels that indeed Mary’s sensitivity to the divinity of her baby needed to be dulled. She was too young to comprehend the magnitude of the miracle. “Give her time. There will be much to experience in her precious life. Let it happen as normally and as gradually as possible.” 

The other angels all were glad for the instructions that abruptly ended their argument. 

Then the throne did something spectacular.

As she got into the bed where her father Joachim had died, exhausted, Mary quickly fell into a deep comforting sleep. The angels hovered around her admiring this graceful young lady moments past her childhood.

To their amazement, the angels witnessed the throne spinning like a top, faster and faster until a thread of light shot out, like lightening, but not so fast. The light became a golden luminous thread. The angels stared in awe. The golden thread then became like a lasso. It spun around and around until it became a ball. The ball spun towards sleeping Mary very fast and as it spun it became smaller and smaller, but brighter and brighter.

A cloud slowly emerged to envelope sleeping Mary. It was like a puffy cumulus cloud, like cotton candy but airy. It was opaque so nothing could be seen inside of it. God did not want the angels to see the holy sacred conception and so he covered her with His spirit of love. The angels could not penetrate the cloud. By the time it reached the cloud covering, the golden luminous ball had become as small as a seed, as small as a mustard seed, but brighter than the summer sun. During all that, Mary was in a deep dreamless sleep on her parent’s bed, the same bed where Joachim passed from earth to Hades.

Mary conceived without any physical feeling at all. As when bread and wine become the Body and Blood of the Son of God in the Eucharist; which is a miracle without fanfare, without trumpets blaring, without fireworks and orchestras as would be appropriate, so did the seed of God find Mary’s egg, the pearl, with a quiet kiss they became One.

The throne emerged from the cloud and appeared to the angels again. The angels bowed before him with deep and respectful bows as before a benevolent monarch. The throne bid the angels farewell and ascended through Anna’s home into the air to return to the almighty God with the announcement of the mission accomplished and to join the celebration there.

The angels watched the cloud gradually dissipate until they saw Mary hugging her pillow laying on her side. Her face looked radiant; she looked as soft and peaceful as a sleeping baby. 

The angels stood guard for the rest of the evening and the night. There was not a demon for miles and miles around. No demon dared to come near, their weakness betrayed their mischievous hatred. Even the air smelled better and cleaner for the lack of decay. The angels noticed the unique absence of corruption, but didn’t bother to remark about it to each other. Each angel simply enjoyed the evening on earth watching over the new mother of God. 

Mary awoke at dawn as usual, feeling healthy and well-rested. She was not even concerned about Joseph. She bathed with the remnant of the water she had fetched the day before, and then made her bed, started a little fire and cooked an egg for herself. Then she sat in her mother’s chair and prayed.

From that moment on Mary was a new person. It was not only the babe come into the world, but God alive in her. Eve was created in God’s image and likeness, similarly divinity entered Mary’s mortal frame. Volumes could be written about the comparison between new Eve and Mary. That morning Mary sensed that she belonged to God, more than she ever belonged to Joachim and Anna, or to Mother or the high priest or the temple. Much more than she could ever belong to Joseph or to Nazareth. She belonged to her Baby Boy. From that moment He was at the center of her universe, as bright and life-giving as the sun. 

Mary decided to go for a hike that day. She packed a little bag and walked to the mountain that her father enjoyed hiking up. It was difficult and some times she huffed and puffed through the climb, but she was young and strong. She enjoyed the challenge as she anticipated the view from the top. From time to time she sat and looked down on Nazareth, away from the world. At one point she passed a Shepard with his goats. They greeted each other in passing, reveling in their shared enjoyment of the spectacular view. Mary told herself that she wanted to do this often. She could understand how the mountain could have been a refuge for her father. It was a good day. 

Joseph wasn’t sure of how to approach Mary. Nothing like this had ever happened before! Nowhere in the scripture, but wait, yes! Joseph was enough of a scholar of the Torah to have read the prophet Isaiah. “And a Virgin shall conceive a child...” could this be it?! Oh my! Glory to God!” These thoughts overwhelmed Joseph. Joseph was anxious to get back to the Torah and reread Isaiah.

After work, Joseph cleaned himself up and walked over to Mary’s house. He was very nervous, wondering how to speak to her. “Did she know that Misha told him? Why hadn’t she come by the workshop to tell him? How did it happen, and when?”

They hadn’t made plans, but Mary knew instinctively that it was Joseph knocking at her door. 

Mary was nervous too. “How would she tell him what happened the day before at the well?” She opened the door, and Mary and Joseph looked into each other’s eyes. There was so much to tell each other, neither of them knew about the other’s angelic visitations.

“Come in. I’m so glad to see you. Misha and I made a big pot of soup yesterday. Would you like some?”

“Yes, I know. Sure, I’d love some of your soup.”

“How do you know?”

“After she left here, Misha stopped by my shop, and congratulated me on your pregnancy.”

Mary gasped. She didn’t know whether to be angry at Misha or relieved because she didn’t have to break the news. Mary studied Joseph’s face for his reaction. He walked inside and Mary shut the door behind him. She couldn’t face him. 

“Mary, I admit that I was upset when I heard this. But the strangest thing happened. Last night in my sleep, an angel came to me and assured me that your child was...” Joseph could not say it. The notion of an immaculate conception was unspeakable “Tell me, how did this happen? What happened?”

“Please Joseph, come in and sit down. Let me get supper on the  table and then I will tell you.” Mary needed the time to reorganize her explanation now that he already knew she was pregnant. 

Joseph first placed more wood in the fireplace, then he sat at the table and waited while Mary scurried around warming the soup and getting her rusks and olives.

When they were seated and their supper was before them, Joseph said the blessing and started to eat. He didn’t want to force or rush Mary. On this visit, he saw her differently. She was not the young orphan he had met at the temple, but rather ...he couldn’t even think it. What does it mean to be the pregnant mother-to-be of the Son of God? This lady, so young and lovely. Joseph was the first man to know of the miracle, and to recognize how God had chosen Mary above all women to bear His Son. 

Mary told Joseph about the visitation of the angel at the well and about how she came home and cried and fell asleep and that Misha woke her up. She told Joseph that she hadn’t plan to tell Misha, but that the words spilled from her mouth and how she changed the subject right away, which left Misha to make her own assumptions. As for how it happened, Mary didn’t know. She just believed.

As Mary and Joseph spoke that evening, together they saw the finger of God on their entire lives, both of their lives. They realized why she was an only child of elderly parents, why she lived at the temple, and for Joseph, why his wife had passed so young, and all the years without a wife, and how perfect it was for an older man such as he to be the guardian of this gem, and of her Divine Son. 

“Joseph, I think you were chosen too.” said Mary quietly and peacefully.

That evening Mary and Joseph wept together. They had never been so close. Jospeh said they needed to marry as soon as possible. Mary agreed. She asked if they could live at her home. No. But they would keep it open so she could return whenever she wanted time to herself. His children loved her and they wanted  a new mother too. They were growing fast, but they were still at home. 

“Oh! Right!” Mary never thought about becoming a mother so soon. Then she thought of Mother, and how she had admired her mothering of all the girls, none of them her very own, and how she wanted to be like her. And here she was, becoming the mother of these children, another mother’s children, just as she prayed for, but boys! Yes, that was perfect too. Mary admitted that she had to learn how to mother a boy, and how perfect that too was, that she could practice before her own baby boy was born. 

That night Joseph could not leave her, so he slept with her for the first time. Joseph held her closely in his arms all night long. She felt so loved and so protected and comfortable. Mary thanked and glorified God as she fell asleep, as cozy as was the holy infant in her womb. 

The wedding was celebrated by the whole village. Everyone was welcome as they all had lived through Joseph’s loss and child rearing, and for Mary because of their admiration of Joachim and Anna. This wedding was like all village weddings, except for the lack of parents for both the bride and groom.

Misha and Mary had been cooking all week without a break. Joseph and his friends brought vats of wine, and the villagers brought more food and money as gifts for the happy couple. It was a regular Jewish celebration. No one knew about the baby, even Deborah, because Misha kept her promise after congratulating Joseph. Everyone danced well into the night. Joy pervaded Nazareth. 

As the following weeks passed Mary had none of the ordinary  symptoms of pregnancy. Secretly each wondered if it was really true. Mary settled into Joseph’s busy home with the grown children, but would return to her home from time to time for peacefulness and prayer. Otherwise their lives returned to the rhythm of mealtimes, work times and sleep times, except for the underlying anticipation of the pregnancy which was bound to show itself eventually. It was as if they both lived on two planes simultaneously, the mundane and the miraculous.

Even as the holy baby in her womb grew, Mary’s spirit, her humility, her devotion to the Lord grew. The divine cells inside her multiplied and transferred into her system. The blood she gave her Baby combined with the holy DNA that He imparted to her. The Holy Child did not just grown in her womb as a molecule in a test tube, but traveled through her body and changed her. She gave God her womb and He gave her holiness.*

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*Within weeks of conception, cells from both mother and fetus traffic back and forth across the placenta, resulting in one becoming a part of the other. During pregnancy, as much as 10 per cent of the free-floating DNA in the mother’s bloodstream comes from the fetus, and while these numbers drop precipitously after birth, some cells remain. Children, in turn, carry a population of cells acquired from their mothers that can persist well into adulthood, and in the case of females might inform the health of their own offspring. And the fetus need not come to full term to leave its lasting imprint on the mother: a woman who had a miscarriage or terminated a pregnancy will still harbor fontal cells. With each successive conception, the mother’s reservoir of foreign material grows deeper and more complex, with further opportunities to transfer cells from older siblings to younger children, or even across multiple generations.

Far from drifting at random, human and animal studies have found fontal origin cells in the mother’s bloodstream, skin and all major organs, even showing up as part of the beating heart. This passage means that women carry at least three unique cell populations in their bodies – their own, their mother’s, and their child’s – creating what biologists term a micro-chimera, named for the Greek fire-breathing monster with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a serpent

Katherine Rowland is a journalist. Her work has appeared in Nature, the Financial Times, the Independent, and OnEarth, among other publications. She is the publisher and director of Guernica magazine, and lives in New York City. 

Aeon magazine.