For centuries, artists have attempted to capture one of the most history-altering pregnancy announcements of all time: that moment when the angel Gabriel meets Mary of Nazareth. As you read today, take a moment to look up images of the annunciation in icons, frescoes, and stained-glass windows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I imagine this scene, here is Gabriel, outside in the garden or standing in the room, glowing with heavenly light. There is Mary, shrinking back in astonishment, interrupted in her chores or other daily duties. Religious art reflects the cultures and time periods that created them, but the one thing in common is those two haloed characters: a divine messenger and an ordinary girl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lovely as they are, what these paintings usually miss is Mary\u2019s lived experience in first century Galilee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kelley Nikondeha paints a vivid picture of Mary\u2019s world in her book The First Advent in Palestine<\/em>. We may imagine the people of Israel breathlessly waiting for a Messiah, and that was true for some communities in ancient Israel. The southern kingdom, Judea, was home to Jerusalem, a city immersed in temple culture where rabbis debated the finer points of Torah and Davidic history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But Mary was a Galilean, northern villager likely trying to survive. I imagine the people of her town practiced their faith and waited for the Messiah the way we, too, wait for Jesus to return. We hope for the new creation, but bills must be paid and meals must be made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So imagine what it would be like for a girl from one of these humble villages to find herself at the center of an improbable announcement: “Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.\u201d (Luke 1:31) No wonder she was so \u201cdeeply troubled\u201d and her first reaction was a perplexed, \u201cHow can this be?\u201d (v.34).<\/p>\n\n\n\n What if waiting with hope feels more like a smoldering ember than a blazing fire? None of us has to look far to see that the world is not as it should be. We can rage at the headlines, or we can numb out. We can deeply engage, or we can keep plodding along, trying to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what does it look like to notice where God is already here, working, announcing the kingdom to come? What if we linger in these last few days of Advent, scanning our headlines for the helpers, highlighting the glimmers of peace and hope that are already here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Later, when Joseph, too, felt rocked by this improbable news, an angel gave him the same encouraging words Mary heard: \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid….She will give birth a son, and you are to name him Jesus.\u201d (Matthew 1:20\u201321)<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so the story took place in unexpected places, in wombs and in dreams, in villages and in temples. God is making all things new.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For centuries, artists have attempted to capture one of the most history-altering pregnancy announcements of all time: that moment when the angel Gabriel meets Mary of Nazareth. As you read today, take a moment to look up images of the annunciation in icons, frescoes, and stained-glass windows. As I imagine this scene, here is Gabriel, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":72670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[307],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advent25"],"acf":{"hero_background_image":false,"related_plans":[72991],"weekly_truth":false,"grace_day":false,"share_text":"#SheReadsTruth","devotional_text":"THE BIRTH OF JESUS ANNOUNCED<\/b> For centuries, artists have attempted to capture one of the most history-altering pregnancy announcements of all time: that moment when the angel Gabriel meets Mary of Nazareth. As you read today, take a moment to look up images of the annunciation in icons, frescoes, and stained-glass windows.<\/p> As I imagine this scene, here is Gabriel, outside in the garden or standing in the room, glowing with heavenly light. There is Mary, shrinking back in astonishment, interrupted in her chores or other daily duties. Religious art reflects the cultures and time periods that created them, but the one thing in common is those two haloed characters: a divine messenger and an ordinary girl.<\/p> Lovely as they are, what these paintings usually miss is Mary\u2019s lived experience in first century Galilee.<\/p> Kelley Nikondeha paints a vivid picture of Mary\u2019s world in her book The First Advent in Palestine<\/em>. We may imagine the people of Israel breathlessly waiting for a Messiah, and that was true for some communities in ancient Israel. The southern kingdom, Judea, was home to Jerusalem, a city immersed in temple culture where rabbis debated the finer points of Torah and Davidic history.<\/p> But Mary was a Galilean, northern villager likely trying to survive. I imagine the people of her town practiced their faith and waited for the Messiah the way we, too, wait for Jesus to return. We hope for the new creation, but bills must be paid and meals must be made.<\/p> So imagine what it would be like for a girl from one of these humble villages to find herself at the center of an improbable announcement: \"Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.\u201d (Luke 1:31) No wonder she was so \u201cdeeply troubled\u201d and her first reaction was a perplexed, \u201cHow can this be?\u201d (v.34).<\/p> What if waiting with hope feels more like a smoldering ember than a blazing fire? None of us has to look far to see that the world is not as it should be. We can rage at the headlines, or we can numb out. We can deeply engage, or we can keep plodding along, trying to survive.<\/p> But what does it look like to notice where God is already here, working, announcing the kingdom to come? What if we linger in these last few days of Advent, scanning our headlines for the helpers, highlighting the glimmers of peace and hope that are already here.<\/p> Later, when Joseph, too, felt rocked by this improbable news, an angel gave him the same encouraging words Mary heard: \u201cDon\u2019t be afraid....She will give birth a son, and you are to name him Jesus.\u201d (Matthew 1:20\u201321)<\/p> And so the story took place in unexpected places, in wombs and in dreams, in villages and in temples. God is making all things new.<\/p>","share_image_height":"640","day_number":"23","scripture":"Luke 1:26-38, Matthew 1:18-21, Matthew 1:24-25","available":true,"ad_banner_name":"","ad_banner_image":false,"ad_banner_url":"","songs":"","key_verse":"","key_verse_reference":"","background_image":false,"background_color":"#FBF7F3","scripture_references":false,"share_image":false,"author_name":"","author_bio":"","guest_social_media":false,"show_ad":true,"ad_override":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/70"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shereadstruth.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\r\nby Jen Yokel<\/i>
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