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"Can I speak to Mary?" Dressed in a white suit with a red hankie neatly tucked in his suit pocket, a young man spoke with the woman in the doorway.

"I'm Mary," she replied.

"Ah, Mary. My name is Gabe. My boss asked me to come and talk to you."

"Your boss? Who's that?"

"Mr. G. He is a very busy person, Mary. Seems to be everywhere. However, he simply couldn't be here himself. So he sent me to make you a proposal. May I come in?" Gabe had such an engaging smile with a little mole just accenting his dimpled cheek that Mary found his request impossible to resist.

"Well, only for a couple of minutes. I'm waiting for my fianc ."

"Mary, what I have to say won't take long."

"Come in then." Mary showed Gabe into the living room, pointed to a recliner for Gabe and then sat down in a rocker across from him. When Gabe had made himself comfortable, he began. "My boss, Mr. G., has been observing you for a long time."

"Observing me?" Mary puzzled.

"Yes, observing. And he's grown very fond of you."

"Fond of me?" Mary's eyes widened.

"His very words, Mary. I said to him before I left, 'Do you want me to use the word fond?' and he said, 'Oh, by all means I want you to tell her that precisely.' This means, of course, you are kind of his favorite!"

"His favorite what?" Mary grew suspicious.

"There is no one in the world like you," Gabe crooned seductively and added quickly, "his very words, not mine. Really, I'm not making them up."

By this time Mary's head was swimming. "I'm Mr. G.'s favorite? He thinks there's no one else in the world like me? Wait! I'm not sure I like this kind of attention." Mary's voice quivered as she tightened her grip on the arms of her rocker. "Quite frankly, I'm afraid. What does Mr. G. want from me?"

Gabe leaned forward in his chair and patted her soothingly on the hand. "There now, Mary, no need to fear. Mr. G. is really very gentle. He wouldn't hurt a flea. He is generous and kind towards all his workers and would do anything for them. We all think he's just -- how shall I say it -- ah, divine. That's it, divine! But as I told you earlier I have a proposal to make. Because you are such a favorite of Mr. G.'s, he'd like you to know that when you have your baby he's going to think of that child as his very own."

"My baby?" Mary's mouth dropped open. "Does he know something I don't know?"

"Oh, yes, a baby," Gabe repeated matter of factly. And then almost as if it were a small detail, he added, "A boy, actually. You see Mr. G. is convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that your boy will go places. He'll be a real winner ... no doubt about it." Now Gabe paused, leaned forward even more closely and whispered conspiratorially, "In fact, on several occasions he told me personally, 'Gabe, you won't find a finer woman than that Mary. When she has a child, I'm willing to bet he'll save the whole nation!' "

"You're kidding! He said that?" Mary was having a difficult time making sense of all she was hearing.

"He did. He really did," Gabe reassured her.

"Well, he certainly seems to know more about my future than I do. But how could I possibly have a child? Doesn't Mr. G. know I'm not even married? How? What? I mean...." Mary interrupted herself, "Did he really say, 'Save the whole nation'?"

"Really. Cross my heart, Mary. Oh, and by the way, since the boy is going to be helping an awful lot of people, Mr. G. thinks 'Jesus' would be a good name for him. And he will see to it that Jesus will always have his personal backing in whatever he does and wherever he goes. He'll be with him all the way. Mr. G. has already told a number of us, 'I'll see to it that eventually Jesus gets top billing as my own son ... if it's okay with Mary.' "

Mary was silent for a moment as she carefully considered what Gabe was telling her. "I still don't understand how Mr. G. can be so sure all of this is going to happen."

"Just leave that in Mr. G.'s hands. Trust him. He has a real talent for making things happen. You could say it's his business to make the impossible possible!" Gabe paused, congratulating himself on how well he had summarized Mr. G.'s business. "Hmmm, making the impossible possible. Pretty catchy!" Then Gabe gave Mary a few tips for her future. "All you need to do is settle down and marry that young man you're engaged to. It'll work out. You'll see. Just remember one thing. You're Mr. G.'s favorite and if you believe that -- you'd be surprised at what great things can happen."

Mary was overwhelmed. She had never considered herself anybody's favorite. And now this man in the white suit with the winning smile had shown up at her front door with a message from a Mr. G. whom she had never heard of before. It all seemed so incredible! Her initial impulse was to dismiss the whole thing as some practical joke. Yet, deep down, she wanted desperately to believe it. This man had made Mary feel that she was someone special, and had offered her such a marvelous vision of hope.

Finally she found the words to speak. "Please tell Mr. G. that if he thinks that highly of me, then I'm with him. I'm relying on his word."

Gabe smiled warmly. "Mary, I know Mr. G. will be delighted with your answer. I think he's already anticipated it, and intends to stage a big celebration very shortly. So, with that done I've got to be flying back to the office. But you'll be hearing from me again." Gabe rose, took Mary's hand, and kissed it gently. "And may I say, you are every bit as charming as Mr. G. led us to believe." Then without another word he made his way to the door and was gone in an instant.

"Mary, are you still asleep?"

"What?" Mary's eyes blinked open, and she found herself looking up into the face of a man gazing lovingly down at her. "Joseph? I ... uh, was I sleeping?"

"For about an hour. I was here earlier but I didn't want to disturb you." Mary didn't know whether she had been dreaming or what ... it had all seemed so real, so vivid. But if she had been dreaming, she concluded, it was certainly the kind of dream she'd have wanted to become a reality. And although the details were very hazy, Mary sensed that her future was definitely moving in a new direction.

As she got up from her rocker Mary noticed something red on the recliner. "Joseph, is that your hankie?"

"No, it isn't."

Mary rubbed her eyes. "Hmmmmm," she wondered as she reached over to pick it up. "It looks so familiar." She held it close to her heart as she pondered the meaning of all that had happened that day.


Reflection


Many of us at one time or another have been engaged to someone. But who among us has been engaged with God? Engaged with God? Can we even take the question seriously? Of course, we might say Mary was engaged with God. After all, it was through the power of God's Spirit that she became pregnant. However, maybe if we consider what engagement means we shall discover all of us have been, are, now and always will be engaged with God; and this story serves as a reminder of the meaning of engagement.

How can one be engaged with God? Consider how the word is used. Someone has an engaging personality, i.e., interesting, entertaining, charming, even seductive. Thus, Mary is drawn into conversation by Gabe who represents Mr. G. He is engaging, charming. He tells her God has a crush on her. She is a favorite of his. Then he tells her what God has in mind and she is overwhelmed and in conflict. Another meaning for the word! To engage someone is to confront and to be in conflict as when two parties engage one another in battle. "How can this be?" Mary asks. She engages and is engaged with God through the angel. Finally, she submits and places herself in God's hands; she promises herself to God. This is yet another meaning of the word engage: to promise or submit. The word has many meanings and Mary's relationship with God can be understood more deeply by understanding them all.

If we consider our own relationship with God as an engagement in the senses described above, we begin to see it in a different way. We too are engaged or seduced by God when we have a heightened sense of our own worth or value; we feel favored, important. We don't do anything to produce that awareness. It just comes over us. However, we also engage God in conflict. Like Mary we want to know, "How can this be?" Whether we are speaking about getting through the day or through a difficult period in our lives due to illness, divorce, death, etc., we are overwhelmed by what appears to be an impossible situation. So our relationship is one of conflict and darkness. But we also go along, do what we can, trust, and hand ourselves over. We become engaged, committed to whatever is in store for us. But whatever is in store is ultimately in the hands of the one Jesus called Father. We are indeed engaged with God.

And what is the result of such an engagement? Would it be too far-fetched to speak of becoming pregnant? Something of us is transformed or changed so that Jesus is incarnated, embodied, and enfleshed in engagement. The story of our engagement with Mr. G. never ends because Mr. G. always wants to become engaged.