I used these  stories as a sermon just before Christmas. 

Mary

I never expected to be pregnant at my age.

How will I cope?

When the angel told me, it all seemed so simple, but now in the cold post angel light I'm not so sure.

All I know, assuming it wasn't all a dream, is that I'm going to be pregnant.

I don't know when.

How will I know? Am I pregnant already or have I got to wait?

I've got so many questions.

I did think to ask how will this be since I'm a virgin.

The angel said “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and God's power will rest upon you. It seemed a good answer at the time, but now I think, “That's really vague”. What does it mean? Will I even know it's happened?

And what am I going to say to mum and dad? They'll think I'm deluded, call in the doctor.

I must be deluded, the angel said that I’d give birth to the son of God, as if a humble girl like me from a humble family like mine could be given such an honour.

And what will I tell Joseph? Oh no I don't want to lose Joseph, I love him and he loves me, at least he did. But he'll never understand.

What ever made me agree to this?

“I'm the Lord's servant”, I said. And I am. I want to please him, but this is way way too hard.

I don't know what to do next, all my plans have been turned upside down.

I'm trying to think if the angel said anything helpful at all.

I remember now he said “there is nothing that God cannot do, Elizabeth is pregnant.”

Elizabeth, pregnant, she's been trying for years and years and now she's pregnant, I think he said 6 months.

I’ll go to Elizabeth, talk to Elizabeth surely she'll understand.

It's a long way. It'll take at least 3 days to get there but it will be worth it.

I can ask her how you know that your pregnant, she’ll know the signs.

And she's a woman of God I can talk to her about the angel, and about my Joseph and about what I'm going to do.

I'll get some things together and go straight away.

Elizabeth

I never expected to be pregnant at my age.

To be honest I gave up long ago,tried to put it out of my mind.

“Barren”, they called me. What a harsh, unforgiving word that is. One small word that sums up all my years of shame and heartache and disappointment.

People were divided, they treated me with either scorn or pity, this ‘less than a woman’ in their midst. I didn't want either, why would I. I wanted the feel of a downy little head upon my breast, a soft warm body next to mine, starfish hands grasping my finger.

I tried, we tried, endlessly, Zech and I,

I knew he felt the loss of children as keenly as I did.

We tried everything; prayed, pleaded, saw every doctor, ate all the right food  gave up alcohol.

We kept temperature charts, ovulation charts, every chart under the sun, with all the strain that put on our relationship. And month after month, rolling in to year after year, we faced crushing disappointment.

I never expected to be pregnant at my age.

You'll laugh at this. When I started being sick in the mornings I put it down to something I’d eaten.

I even scrubbed the kitchen to make sure it didn't happen again.

It did, morning after morning,until eventually like a bolt from the blue I realised why.

This was what God had promised - not the sickness, nobody warned me about that - no he'd promised me a son.

When Zech went up to the temple because it was his divisions turn of duty - oh I really ought to introduce him to you properly - he's Zechariah, priest in the division of Abijah.

That week had been a particularly bad one for me. A woman in the village half my age had just given birth to twins and it brought home to me once again the depth of my failure…

When Zech went up to the temple he normally stayed for a week. Nothing could have prepared me for how he was when he returned.

He couldn't speak not even a whisper and yet he had such a story to tell.

He'd seen an angel: been promised a son, John, a wonderful son, a joy and a delight to us, as if he could be any other.

There was more much more but Zech could only write it down and I struggled to take it in, Zech had struggled too despite his strong faith that's why he couldn't speak as a reminder not to doubt God.

So there I was, I’d received the most exciting news of my life and I’d no- one to discuss it with.

I struggled to believe, who would believe they'd become pregnant after all those years of trying. That's why I was sick for so many mornings before the denarius dropped.

Then I veered between euphoria and blind panic.

I was going to have a child after giving up all hope

But supposing something went wrong,

suppose I wasn't eating properly or resting enough,

suppose I died in childbirth, suppose you didn't make it.

Suppose I couldn't cope with a baby, didn't have the energy at my age.

And then I felt your first kick and knew you were alive and well. But then if you didn't kick for a while I started to worry again. I think I was just on my own too much.

When Mary came I was at the lowest ebb of that cycle, I’d not felt you move for hours, my fears were very near the surface.

Yet when Mary greeted me you leapt in my womb, it was as if you'd saved all your energy for that moment.

It was then I truly believed…God's presence was so close and so comforting, so powerful.

My John would be great in the sight of the Lord, I remembered that promise at last.

And I looked at Mary and my heart overflowed with joy and love, “Blessed are you amongst women and blessed is the child you will bear.”

God has blessed me threefold, he has given me a son, he has sent the mother of my Lord to me and she will be my companion on the journey.

Mary (continued)

I'm so pleased, so pleased I came. Elizabeth knew, I didn't need to say anything.

Her baby, John, leapt in her womb the minute she saw me.

God has confirmed through her all the angel had promised, he's calmed all my fears, he's filled me with joy.

My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour.