Mom had asked me to do the chores and dust the table. I’m allergic to dust but mom had asked me to, and I really want to keep the Lord’s commandments written in the scriptures, so I decided to dust the table without much fuss. I pulled out the chairs and dusted the table. As I turned around to put the chairs back, I saw a man standing at the entrance of the room. He said ” Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”. I was startled at first and then I recognized that man to be an angel of the Lord.

I knelt and looked downward, afraid to look at his face. He continued “Do not be afraid; I am Gabriel and I am here to convey a message to you: You have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”. I humbly replied “But how is this possible, I am not even married and what might people say, I don’t think my family is ready to deal with this right now”. I continued “I’m sorry but I will bring disgrace to my family, the people… ” I started sobbing “…the people will speak bad things about me and the family”.

Gabriel seemed upset and I thought to myself, it is so easy to obey the commandments but when it comes to sacrificing ones life for a good cause, it becomes hard. I wanted to stop him and tell him to have Lord’s will in me but I couldn’t stop thinking about the shame this will bring to me and my family. This is when mom walked into the room, she couldn’t see Gabriel, saw me kneeling down and told me “Shira, you can say your prayers later, are you done dusting the table?”.

Gabriel turned and started walking away and I heard him say “Lord, 4 down, last one to go. Please, let Mary accept your plan”

Disclaimer: Did not mean to offend any religious sentiment!

Other Short Stories

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