In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name 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, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
And the angel answered her, “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 called holy—the Son of God.
Comment: The passage tells that Mary was troubled and that is not surprising. Most people think that Mary was in her teens as girls were married early. She obviously knew about the Promise of a coming Messiah, because that was the great Hope of Israel; She obviously knew the facts about reproduction and asks the obvious question ‘How will his be, since I am a virgin.’ The answer which she is given makes God the Father. It is totally unnecessary to let our minds wander into the intimacies of the how. But the answer makes not only Jesus the ‘Son of God’, but lets us also realize that He was truly a MAN. We have here the Messiah coming – the God-Man on the way onto earth.
Thus armed with fantastic promises from God, Mary goes out into a scandal ridden and gossiping world. But as we saw earlier God has brought Joseph into the picture to stand by her side, as a loving support.
Prayer: While she was just a normal young woman, we thank You for giving Mary the strength and character to be such a truly good mother for our Saviour.
As I read it! 
Thank you Barry, for your comments on this passage. I believe Mary was not just any ordinary young virgin. I believe that her lineage was of the priestly line, because she was a cousin to Elizabeth, and Elizabeth and Zachariah were from the Aaronic priestly line. It is interesting that the derivative meaning of Mary (Maria) is “bitter”, (as that is where my name is from), and that is appropriate for Mary who had many bitter times ahead of her as she saw her son,
God’s Son, go through much suffering on His way to the cross, as well as suffering the agony of crucifixion. God bless you.
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She was special and chosen. In a way I am a royalist but I would claim that Queen Elizabeth was just a young virgin until she had intercourse the first time, I hope with Prince Philip. But she is a very special woman with a lineage of greatness. Mary was chosen by God in His Grace and Perfect Plan, but she is not to be worshipped as so many of the ‘orthodox’ denominations do. In that sense she was a normal young woman, with all the pressures of growing up and she had to face many things as we all have to.
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