Mary, unlike her cousin Elizabeth, was young. Elizabeth was old and childless. Mary, however, is young and un, married. Imagine her surprise when, as she is going about her daily routines, of cooking cleaning, perhaps caring for younger children, or planting and harvesting, `a heavenly being stops and interrupts and upsets everything with the news that she would soon have a baby. She would not have just any baby, but the son of God, the Messiah. This is great news! For Mary obedience was not, merely, inconvenient it was bound to cause problems. Mary was unmarried and just like any small town, people know your business before you do. People were going to know that she was having a baby outside of marriage. I know that today it's not a big thing, but in that society, she could have been stoned, killed. That's a huge problem. If she were not killed, they were sure to treat her as an outcast. still a problem for Mary. Joseph, her