His name wasn’t Harold.   He was a herald. He and his buddies were messengers, the announcers and proclaimers of good news… the best news ever!   Hark! the herald angels sing,“Glory to the newborn King: peace on earth, and mercy mild,God and sinners reconciled … Christ is born in Bethlehem!”   Sent from Heaven’s throne, the angel choir appeared in the moonlit sky over Bethlehem’s hills, the same hills travelled and traversed by David, the shepherd-boy/king.   The symphonic so

It would be difficult to envision the interaction between Gabriel and Mary. Gabrial was a trusted angel, a messenger sent from Heaven’s glorious throne room. Mary was a simple Hebrew girl, virtuous, chaste, pure… maybe fourteen or fifteen.    “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Now listen: You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him

Israel, God’s chosen people, had once been the world’s superpower, but the Assyrians, Babylonians, and Persians had ransacked, ruined, and robbed them of their glory. Now, in the first century AD, the Romans ruled.   A thousand years after David’s celebrated reign, the nation clung to the promise of restoration. They believed the promise given to their ancestral king: “I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom… M