The Adventures of Jesus Christ
Episodes from the Life of Jesus for Young Readers
by Vincent Cheung
[ Contents ]
Chapter 3. Jesus and the Angel
LOOK, I BRING YOU GOOD NEWS!
In a small town called Nazareth, there was a young woman named Mary. She probably did not seem very important. There was nothing about her that would make people stop and think, “There is something special about her. Let’s pay attention to her. She will become famous one day.”
They never expected that, even hundreds of years later, people would still know about Mary. But God was about to change all that. In fact, he was not only about to change her life, but he was about to change the world. The thing that God talked about for hundreds of years was about to happen.
It began when God sent an angel to visit Mary. The angel was called Gabriel. Angels are God’s servants and messengers. They work for God. People usually cannot see them, but when God wants them to appear to people, then they can become visible to people. They sometimes bring important announcements and instructions.
Gabriel appeared to Mary and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you!” Mary was surprised. She wondered why the angel would say something like this to her.
But the angel continued, “Mary, do not be afraid. God has decided to show you special favor. You will become pregnant and have a son, and his name will be Jesus. He will be a great man. He will be called the Son of the Most High God. And God will give him the throne of David, his ancestor, and his kingdom will never end.”
Mary asked, “How can this happen? I am not married, and I am still a virgin.” The angel assured her, “The Holy Spirit will come to you, and the child will be conceived by the power of God. So the baby will not be sinful like all the children of Adam and Eve. He will be the Son of God. For nothing is impossible with God.”
An angel also appeared to Joseph, who would be Mary’s husband. The angel said to him, “Mary is pregnant, but do not be afraid to make Mary your wife. The child inside her is conceived by the Holy Spirit. She will have a son, and you will call him Jesus. He will save his people from their sins.”
Mary believed what God said to her through the angel. This is the difference between someone who can follow God and someone who cannot follow God. The angel said that God would cause a miracle to happen to Mary, and she believed it.
If God says in the Bible that a miracle will happen to you, will you believe it? Many people say that they follow God, but when God talks about miracles happening to them, they do not believe. But Mary believed, and she said, “I am God’s servant. May everything God said about me come true.”
God promised Adam and Eve that he would send a hero to take back everything that they lost, and to restore everything that they had broken. Then God told the prophets more and more details about this person who would come to save you and me.
This hero, this Savior, would fix everything that was wrong with the world and everything that was wrong with people, so that through him we can follow God again, to love God again, to talk to God again, and to live with God again. All of this was coming true!
Mary became important and special, but she became that way only because God connected her with the Word. She never did anything herself that made her special. Mary was special only because of Jesus. She remained special only because she stayed connected to Jesus. After all, these were not her adventures, but the adventures of Jesus Christ.