During these days of special preparation for Christmas, we read several Old Testament stories of the miraculous or unexpected conception of children. These stories, of course, attribute these births to God as a gracious sign of his divine providence and eternal care for the poor and the deprived.

To these Old Testament stories of miraculous conceptions, we must add the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist and so understand how all these Old Testament stories of miraculous gifts of a child come to a climax in the conception and birth of John the Baptist and of Jesus.

We may rightly regard these miracles as a preparation for the most miraculous conception and the birth of all, that of Jesus, Son of God, and Son of Mary.

A distinct element in the story of the conception of Samson is that the angel of the Lord made a promise to the woman who would become Samson's mother so that Samson was a fulfilment of a divine promise. Thus, too, Jesus was a child born because of divine promises, the promise of a redeemer which God made to Adam and the promise to Mary: "you shall conceive and bear a son" (Luke 1:21).