God was working overtime when he visited Joseph, Mary’s fiance, in a fantastic dream shortly before the two of them were to be married. An angel - it must have been Gabriel - appeared in his dream and told him to go ahead with the marriage, despite the fact Mary was pregnant. That would make a story in itself; who would think of marrying someone who was going to deliver a child fathered by another person, especially in those times and that kind of society? But this is not the beginning of the story.

Gabriel’s work, in the Christian story, begins with his appearance to Zechariah, the father of John the Baptizer, when he was serving in the Temple. He announced the impending pregnancy of Elizabeth and described the mission of the child who was to be born and named John, but Zechariah found a…