This Tuesday is the Feast of the Annunciation —the annual celebration of the day, nine months prior to Christmas, that the angel Gabriel came to Mary to announce the conception of the infant Christ in her womb. We confess in the Creeds and in the words of the eucharistic liturgy that Christ became incarnate by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the virgin Mary and yet we often fail to marvel at the wonder of this. For it is not as if Christ was merely born Christ was conceived —The second Person of the Godhead not only underwent mammalian birth but also mammalian gestation. Oh the long-suffering patience and obedience of the Son to submit to fulfilling the whole span of human experience!