The angel and the young woman
“Mary said, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it to me according to your word.” The angel departed from her.”Luke 1:38 · WEB
Four hundred years of silence end in a village nobody had heard of, with a teenage girl nobody had heard of. Gabriel tells Mary she will bear a son and call him Jesus, and that his kingdom will have no end. Her question is practical, not doubtful: how will this be, since I am a virgin? The answer is the Holy Spirit, and a sign — her elderly relative Elizabeth is already six months pregnant, for nothing will be impossible with God. Mary's reply costs her more than the text says out loud: an unmarried pregnancy in that village could have ended her life. Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word. When she visits Elizabeth she sings a song about God pulling down the powerful and lifting up the poor.