Leonardo, the man of the Renaissance, --artist, inventor, anatomist, --his work is the inspiration for this very Italian looking angel and setting for the Annunciation to Mary.  I've increased Gabriel's wings to accommodate our ideas and expectations of angel's wings --not the beautiful multi-colored spectrum of the renaissance paintings of angels and holy messengers, but the pure white substantial sized pair we have come to know through art and movies and even Victoria's Secret.

I like this image. I like Gabriel's bent knee as in the proposal posture. He/she is proposing something, and though it is not a marriage to God, this arrangement is something that will wed Mary to God and Jesus forever.  Like a proposal among us in this age, the gesture hopes for an affirmative. A YES would be nice!  After all this! Gabriel even has flowers (lilies)!

Sometimes people will go to great extremes to pop the question --a scrolling message on the scoreboard at a football game, a Goodyear blimp overhead with the WILL YOU MARRY ME? message, a Times Square signs relaying the hopeful person's big idea. I'm always worried the thing will backfire and that the object of affection will decline --it is always a possibility!

Love risks rejection. Here in our story, God risks something. While most think it was a done deal (both then and now), actually there were no guarantees except that God would try, would ask, would offer. And the offer stands for you to recieve the gift of love. The angel looks like he is addressing someone but I left Mary out of this picture because I'd like us to understand the great overture of God to us, --to you and to me.

--Pastor Jack