The Resolute

By: Carol Molliniere

(A/N: Wow, it's been ages since I've stepped back in the Bible fanfiction! Of course, you guys have probably been waiting on this since I put up the teaser. So, here it is! A Bible AU!...Yes, I've probably lost it. Oh well. It's here.)

Disclaimer: I don't own the Bible of course. I even don't own the general world of this AU; I just made it fit in the story of Jesus Christ. The concept is from a friend, but she's allowed me to take some liberties with it. And as for the Bible verses, I used the New American Bible, but with a few verses tweaked to fit the AU. I can do that, right?...

Betrothal.

Why did that word keep ringing in her mind?

Your daughter is to be betrothed.

The young woman tried not to think of her mother's thoughts when she heard those words.

"So soon?"

She should have known it would be a hard thing to grasp for her mother, who had asked the Lord God above again and again for a child. How lucky they were to have her, Miryam, a daughter – even if the people of Nazareth had given her strange looks for being a Default Spiritual.

It was hard to be a person who could read the hearts and minds of other people, including her parents.

Miryam took up a jar from the ground, and set off to the town well. Drawing water would do well to clear her head, as it had always done.

Along the way, she couldn't help but glance at the people around her once again, and she could see what the people around her were feeling. It came as colors on their chests, in her eyes. That man over there: he was upset. A strange reddish-purple blossomed on his breast. The children playing on the street: happy of course, judging by the bright yellow on top of their hearts. The woman walking the same way as her: anxious, as shown by the orange on her chest.

Miryam sighed. She must be anxious too.

Betrothal.

She was betrothed.

To a Default Mechanical named Yosef. She had heard that he was a carpenter; a job that had begun to grow popular among the Default Mechanicals – those who had the power over materials like timber, rocks, and metals. Not a bad profession, to be honest, but doubt was still forming in her heart.

What would he be like? She had only seen his face thrice or four times in total. Would he be a good man, one who would provide for her and her (their) children no matter what? Would he be hardworking?

Would he love her?

Or would he be...

Miryam shook her head. The young woman knew she had to keep herself positive during this time of waiting. Thus, she held her head high as she finally reached the town well.

As young women her age did, she tied one end of a long rope around the neck of the jar, and using the rope, slowly lowered the vase into the well. Miryam watched the jar descend until she heard the familiar splash of water. The jar soon filled itself, and she hummed a pretty little tune to herself as she started to pull the jar back up to her again.

Just as Miryam was almost done pulling the jar up, a bright light shined in her eyes.

Is that the sun?

No, she realized. The sun was behind her.

The young woman looked up, and couldn't believe what she saw.

Shining wings, white clothes, bright face...

The holy air swallowed up her sensitive clairvoyance and left her unable to feel anything else. The rope slipped from Miryam's hands, making the jar fall back down into the well, as well as taking the other end of the rope with it. But at the moment, that did not matter.

An angel of the Lord God!

This angel regarded her with a smile, as if good news were about to be delivered to her. "Hail, Miryam, daughter of Joachim; full of grace you are!" was the greeting. "The Lord is with you!"

Quickly, the young woman dropped to her knees, praying in her heart. How can I live? I have seen the face of the Lord! Yet she wondered all the more what this greeting might have meant. She remembered the stories of the Judges of old; of how people before had seen angels and afterwards received messages from God. Was this to be like those other times?

However, the angel held out a hand to lift her up. "Do not be afraid, Miryam, for you have found favor with God." At these words, Miryam dared to look up once more at the angel, and took the angel's hand to be pulled up. She noticed the angel's chest, glowing bright yellow – the brightest yellow she had ever seen.

"Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son," the angel continued, "and you shall name Him Yeshuah. The child will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give Him the throne of David his father. Like a Resolute protector He will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will never end!"

"H-h-how..." Miryam finally mustered the courage to speak, "how can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" Even though she was a virgin, she had known since the start of her puberty that a woman needed a man to produce a child. She was only betrothed; the wedding ceremony seemed ages away. So why was the angel telling her this now?

The angel wasted no time in responding. "The Holy Spirit will come over you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God."

Son of God.

Miryam pondered the term in her head.

But isn't there only one God?

"And see," the angel continued, making her look back up. "Your cousin Elizabeth has also conceived a son, even in her old age; you know how she was called barren, and now she is already six months pregnant; for nothing will be impossible for God!"

Miryam pursed her lips, and then clasped her hands together in a praying position. Did she believe what the angel had said about her conceiving the Son of God? Moreover, could she?

Nothing will be impossible for God.

She felt humbled. Awed, even, at this realization. If her aged cousin Elizabeth could bear a child, how much more could she bear a child as a virgin? And how much more could God have a Son?

Nothing will be impossible.

The girl looked up, into the angel's eyes, into the light of the angel's chest, burning bright yellow.

"Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord," Miryam declared. "May it be done to me according to your word."

For a second, she thought she could see the angel smile down upon her. Then in a flash of light, the messenger disappeared, leaving her with her thoughts.

Shakily, Miryam got to her feet, her head still spinning with what she had just experienced. What does this mean? Will anything ever be the same? And if I'm found pregnant, what will I say to my parents? To my husband?

Doubts filled her head. Miryam leaned on the well for support, and then looked down into it. Though she couldn't see the water below, she knew it was there, just waiting for a vessel to descend into its depths and draw from its bounty.

Yes. She couldn't see what God was doing, but all she had to do was believe in Him.

Son of God, huh. She put a hand on her belly. What an honor.

(She later had to ask help from someone to get her jar back from the depths of the well, but the welfare of the jar was really the least of her concerns at that point.)