Dear Theophilus,
What a picture your words
paint! A man who is responsible for
transformation of your life, who makes you look at business deals differently,
is indeed more than I have bargained for!
I must say that I read your letter several times, with trepidation
rising within me each time. I believe I
have lived a good life, and that I am a good man. I am not prepared for some man to enter into
it and suddenly change the way I look at things. But, then again, perhaps he will merely
confirm what I believe about myself. I
do not know.
I do not know is a phrase I have
uttered again and again since I last wrote.
When I read your letter, I tried to take in the bulk of what you said
and figure out how it makes sense. These
things just don’t happen! But I have
promised to take up this endeavor with an open mind and an open heart, and so I
shall strive to accept the things I hear.
I trust that the authenticity of lack thereof will be revealed and I
will be at peace once more. There have
been few issues throughout my life that have managed to burrow their way this
deeply into my consciousness, and each one I have been able to settle
decisively in my favor. I am sure this
matter will yield to my investigative prowess, too.
The story you relate is certainly
beyond the fringe of what I consider believable, and I would discount it
readily if I heard about it on the news from some shepherd, but I know you
would not relate it were it not true.
And, I must confess, I have recently heard recounted a similar story to
the one you relate. I believe that part
of my soul wishes it were not true—for if the story is to be found confirmed so
early in the telling, then the implications only grow as it continues. I anticipated myself wrestling with the truth
of the matter until the last page, and perhaps beyond it, but one angelic story
leads straight into another, and I am on the defensive already.
I received this account from a
solicitor I have known for many years. I
wrote to ask him what he knew of Jesus, and within weeks he responded with a
tale I must have read twenty times when I received it. Several social arrangements were skipped due
to how absorbed I was in the issue. I
imagine you have heard it before, and I will admit that it will be nice to have
some confirmation of a tale the likes of which I am accustomed to reading in
children’s fairy tales!
It appears that this angel Gabriel
you mention in your story has been busy—for he also visited a young virgin by
the name of Mary in Nazareth. She was a
rather ordinary girl, engaged to a carpenter named Joseph, of the house of
David. She was the type of girl who
moves through life without creating many ripples on the pond, but in this case
God seems to have dropped a boulder into it, and for some strange reason I
believe it all to be true. My friend
tells me that the angel addressed Mary as a favored one, and told her that the
Lord is with her! Imagine that—a plain
young virgin being favored by the Lord!
It strikes me as rather odd.
The story only grows stranger. She, as most of us would, did not understand
the angel’s greeting. But the angel
continued, telling her that she had somehow found favor with God, and that she
would conceive and have a child, the one whom is named Jesus. This child, the son of a young, ordinary
virgin, will be great, the Son of God, and will sit on the throne of the house
of David! The angel told her the kingdom
will be eternal. It was a lot to take
in, but she had a question about the same thing you or I still have questions
about—how is such a thing possible, since Mary had never had relations with a
man?
Well, the angel didn’t seem nearly
concerned about that detail as Mary was.
He told her that the Holy Spirit would be with her, that the power of
God would be over her, and therefore the child would be a holy child, the Son
of God! As proof that God can do
anything, the angel referred her to Elizabeth, who is her cousin, the barren
woman you referenced who was pregnant.
Mary was overwhelmed by all this,
but she remembered the way her parents talked about Elizabeth. They could scarcely believe the news when
they heard that Elizabeth and Zechariah were going to have a child—their
arthritis is so bad some days the child may have to carry them! But Mary had wondered about all of this and
believed that God did a miracle, so who was she to resist God performing a
miracle in her own life? She replied to
the angel, “I am the Lord’s servant, by your word, may it be so.” Then the angel left.
Such a tale, isn’t it
Theophilus? What kind of story begins
not just with one, but with two miraculous children, each one announced by the
arrival of an angel? One to a barren
woman past her years of childbearing, another to a young girl who is before
them? While Zechariah was undoubtedly
thrilled about the arrival of a son, I wonder if the young woman’s fiancé felt
the same?
I told myself I would stay
emotionally removed from this research—that it would be but a matter of
collecting and processing stories, of examining them and the sources, and then
making a reasoned decision. I see now
how challenging that will be—for these happenings are so much bigger than what
I had expected. I am not a young man,
and I have seen and heard much in this life, but this tale is so much bigger
than I could imagine. And to think that
you believe God has been preparing for it for many years prior!
It is late, and my weary mind is
exhausted already. I pray this finds you
well, and I look forward to hearing what unravels next in this yarn.
Sincerely,
Luke
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