{"id":10802,"date":"2014-12-10T09:45:23","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T09:45:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/archive.richardlittledale.co.uk\/?p=10802"},"modified":"2014-12-10T09:49:45","modified_gmt":"2014-12-10T09:49:45","slug":"to-mary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/2014\/12\/10\/to-mary\/","title":{"rendered":"To Mary…"},"content":{"rendered":"

…a son<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I find myself part way through writing a sermon this morning on the conversation between a terrified young girl and an angel. \u00a0How quickly an ordinary evening turned into a moment to change eternity. \u00a0Been trying to picture the scene:<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

In the little house late Summer is starting to give way to autumn. \u00a0Outside, a light breeze shakes the leaves on the olive trees and they hiss and clatter.\u00a0The smell of cooking fires drifts from one small house to another. \u00a0In one of them, a young girl, just a teenager, sweeps the beaten earth floor as shadows lengthen through the open doorway. \u00a0Reaching the far corner, she turns back to look at the sinking orb of the sun -and finds it replaced by a brighter light still.<\/em><\/p>\n

The light takes shape\u2026the shape takes a voice, and the walls of the little house seem to shake as it speaks. \u00a0\u201cGreetings to you, o favoured one, the Lord is with you\u2019. \u00a0\u201cIsn’t\u00a0he with all of us\u201d, she wondered \u201cwith my father and mother, and my grandmother and all the rest of the family here in the village? \u00a0Why should I be greeted like this?\u201d. Words begin to form on her lips \u2013 words like how and why and who \u2013 but they don\u2019t come out \u2013 like shouting in a dream when no voice comes<\/em><\/p>\n

She grips the broom a little tighter \u2013 the roughness of the wood reassuring in this strangest of moments.\u00a0The voice is speaking again. \u201cMary\u201d. \u00a0\u201cHow does it know my name\u201d, she wonders? \u00a0The voice goes on to speak about promises of a bygone age; about David and Jacob and thrones and kingdoms and a son to be born. \u00a0This is getting scary now. \u00a0She looks around her, anxious for someone to break the moment and make it stop.\u201cThe son will be born to you\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

At this she lowers her eyes and half turns away. She has never known a man \u2013 not like that. \u00a0What if her mother overheard this\u2026or worse still, her father? His brow would furrow, his heart would break, and the family would be forever clouded by shame. \u00a0Good girls don\u2019t do that. \u201cHow\u201d, she whispered \u201chow can I\u201d?, eyes still cast down.<\/em><\/p>\n

This time the voice seems more reassuring \u2013 like the warmth of that low sun spilling into the room. \u00a0\u201cElizabeth knows all about this\u201d, it said \u201cshe will bear a child too\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Daring to look up again at this, Mary sees only the full glare of the orange sun, filling the doorway as it sets.\u00a0Feeling its warmth on her face, she feels those last words driving the chill form her heart \u201cNothing is impossible with God\u201d \u00a0Head up once again , she speaks in a clear voice to the now empty room. \u00a0\u201cLet it be so. Let it be as you have said\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

With that, the \u00a0course of history, like a river diverted by a newly placed boulder, begins to chart a different course…<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"ollerton<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…a son I find myself part way through writing a sermon this morning on the conversation between a terrified young girl and an angel. \u00a0How quickly an ordinary evening turned into a moment to change eternity. \u00a0Been trying to picture … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10802"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10802"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10806,"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10802\/revisions\/10806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/176.32.230.12\/richardlittledale.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}