Right up to the moment of His death, Jesus was caring for others. And He left clear instructions that Mary His mother was to go and live in the household of John. There is no reason given for this. And no mention is made of what had happened to Joseph.

Another well known part of this story tells us that as a pregnant woman she accompanied her future husband to Bethlehem. The Bible gives us no record of them ever having an official marriage. But it does tell us that Joseph was in the lineage of King David. As prophesied.

These two women, Elizabeth and Mary, were both carrying miracle babies. One having felt that she would never conceive because she and her husband were too old. The other, much younger, knowing that she had never had intimacy with a man and yet was carrying a baby. A Holy Baby!

Mary was frightened by the presence of this stranger in her room. I wonder if him saying she had found favour with God would make her feel better or worse? The fact she was greatly troubled at his words suggests that she did not jump up and down with excitement.

There are some denominations across the world where it is taught that Mary was a virgin all her life. But the Holy Bible does not give us that option. You can read the Bible from cover to cover and you will not find that written anywhere in the Holy Scriptures!

As the young family entered the temple, Simeon was waiting. He had received a promise from God that he would see the Messiah before he died. As Mary, Joseph and their little one arrived, Simeon was right there, and received a nudge from God that this child was from Heaven.

Following after the shepherds there was the visit of the magi who brought very expensive treasures for this newborn king. After their visit Joseph was warned in a dream to flee from the jealousy of Herod. So they made the trip south to Egypt where Herod would have no authority.

Mary bore her son and laid Him in a manger. This young family were far from home and most of the people they knew well. So there would be no visitors to see the little one. Suddenly onto the scene came some shepherds saying they had had an angelic visitation!

We suppose that Mary was not the sort of young woman who was sleeping around. If she had been raped, she would surely have shared the shock of that with her family, as well as with Joseph. In the following verse we read of the dream that brought Joseph peace.

This is the first mention of the first Mary this month. She probably deserves a month to herself. They all do! Often people get confused about which things happened to which Mary, it is not always clear. So a month looking at all of them seemed like a good idea.