Do you like surprises? Some folks do. Not me, I do not like bad surprises at all and only tolerate good surprises. In general, I prefer no surprises. I realize that life is full of surprises though, so they will come whether I want them or not.

Some surprises will be bigger than others, of course. Ask Mary. She surely got a major surprise. There she was, doing the dishes or sweeping the floor or sitting engrossed in the latest Harlequin Romance, or whatever young Israelite girls did in those days, when the angel Gabriel suddenly appeared. "Guess what's going to happen to you, Mary." Surprise!

I wonder what Mary thought when she heard the news. Her first reaction was practical — she was not naive and knew where babies came from, so she asked, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" The s…