<p>1:35 <i>And the angel answered and said to her: The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you. Therefore also the holy thing which is begotten within you shall be called the Son of God</i>- The Holy Spirit came upon her, and so <i>Mary&rsquo;s</i> spirit was full of gladness (:35,47). She walked in step with the spirit (Gal. 5:25). Because she believed that really the child she would bear would be &ldquo;holy&rdquo;, she can extol God as &ldquo;holy&rdquo; (1:35,49). She says that God &ldquo;<i>Has</i> done to me great things&rdquo;- she believed that what was promised would actually happen, to the point she felt it had already happened. Now this surely is the essence of faith.</p><p>The Angel&rsquo;s description of Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary&nbsp;could have sent her mind back to how the Spirit-Cherubim and the cloud of Spirit glory overshadowed the ark (Ex. 25:20; 1 Chron. 28:18). The LXX uses the word for &ldquo;overshadow&rdquo; about the cloud of glory overshadowing the ark in the wilderness (Ex. 40:35; Num. 9:18,22). If Mary&rsquo;s mind had been alerted to this possibility, she would have seen the relevance of Elizabeth&rsquo;s words: &ldquo;Who am I, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?&rdquo; (Lk. 1:43). For they are remarkably similar to the LXX of 2 Sam. 6:9, where David asks &ldquo;How can the ark of the Lord come to me?&rdquo;. As a result of this question of David&rsquo;s, the ark remained three months in the house of Obed-Edom (2 Sam. 6:11). And was this why Mary, seeing herself as the ark, remained for three months in the house of Elisabeth straight after hearing this same question asked (Lk. 1:56)? There are further links, between the gladness of Lk. 1:44 and the joy of 2 Sam. 6:12; and the loud cry of Lk. 1:42 and that of 2 Sam. 6:15. If one combines Lk. 1:31 and Jn. 1:14 we have the word of God becoming flesh and &ldquo;tabernacling&rdquo; among us in the womb and faith of Mary. If these connections are valid, then Mary would have felt that within her was He who would be the covenant of the Lord, the stones of the word of God made flesh in a little boy. This was perception indeed.</p>