“You’re girlfriend’s pregnant.” How would you respond if a friend of your’s called you up and dropped that bomb? “I’ve heard that rumor from a couple different people now and I just wanted to make sure you heard it from a friend before some idiot tries to hurt you with it.” Can you picture yourself having that conversation? Now imagine with me a little further. You know for a fact that you haven’t touched her. OK, so you might have kissed the girl once or twice, but it never went much beyond that. There were no hot and heavy sessions and certainly nothing was ever unzipped. You haven’t even had any nights where you were drunk enough to have no recollection the next morning. You aren’t like that and you thought she wasn’t either. Obviously, this is just a vicious rumor.

You are still thinking about how you are going to bring this up with your fiance when she sends you a text: “We need to talk”. You are about to call when another text chimes in. “Face to face. Can you meet me at the park tonight?” Your fingers type yes but they do so on autopilot. Your heart is in your throat. Your gut feels all knotted up. Your mind is racing. What is going on? You are supposed to be fixing up a cabinet your neighbor brought to the shop, but your hands just cannot stay steady. Leaving and going home did no good, though. The minutes seem to tick away at the slowest pace ever. More than an hour before the time to meet you arrive at your special bench. Then you’re up pacing back and forth. Then you’re on the bench again. Your first date ended with a long talk on this very bench through the night into the dawn. She’s a few years younger than you but she seemed so mature. She seemed like such an honest, earnest, godly young woman. What had happened?

Finally, you spot her walking up. It is immediately obvious that she can tell you’re already heard. She stops. You rub your hands on your legs, breathe out, stand, and walk to her kissing her on the forehead. With a tiny voice, she asks, “You’ve heard?” Your head bobs a tight, short nod of its own accord. “I’ve only told my parents. They were furious but promised to keep it quiet until I could tell you. I’ve been thinking for days now how to share it but then my dad told me last night that he might have let it slip at work. I’ve been getting texts from people all day.”

You force your mind to slow down. “In a small town like this, nothing can stay secret for long. So tell me, what happened?” You are surprised at how calm and collected your voice seems even as you rage inside. She takes courage from your words and begins to tell you her story. You can’t believe it. An angel? Giving birth to the Messiah. You know her enough to see she really believes her story but seriously? When she has finished you mumbled something about how you still love her but need some time alone to let it all sink in. At least, that’s what you think you said. Long after she is gone, you stay on that bench. Technically nobody is supposed to be in this park after nine, but that has been ignored for as long as the rule has existed. Long ago the last jogger has passed you on their final lap and returned home. You are there, alone, wondering what you are to do? In a way, you feel better. She didn’t cheat on you, at least not intentionally. She believes what she says. That means either somebody slipped her a drug or her head isn’t quite right and the girl has gone insane. Her dad is a good guy. He will get her the help she needs, or take care of any police matters if she had been drugged. The best thing you can do is just stay out of the way. Break it off quietly and then don’t say anything about any of it to anyone. You are right about to stand up after reaching this decision when the light appears…

This is how Jesus the Messiah was born. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. But before the marriage took place, while she was still a virgin, she became pregnant through the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph, to whom she was engaged, was a righteous man and did not want to disgrace her publicly, so he decided to break the engagement quietly.
As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David,” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. And she will have a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
All of this occurred to fulfill the Lord’s message through his prophet: “Look! The virgin will conceive a child! She will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”
When Joseph woke up, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife. But he did not have sexual relations with her until her son was born. And Joseph named him Jesus.