Mary knows the miraculous nature of her pregnancy as announced by the angel Gabriel.
The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:30-33).
Unlike Zechariah, Mary reacts with belief and submission, and is honored for that. She visits Elizabeth, who is expecting John, and Elizabeth “filled with the Holy Spirit” declares,
Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord (Luke 1:41-45).
Blessed indeed! In many ways, God has given to motherhood the most meaningful role in human life. The mother’s body gives of itself to carry and develop the fetus for many months. Then the mother nurtures the infant and child for many years. Without the mother’s life-giving role, none of us would be here. Ideally and often, the mother is the steady, beating heart of the family. That is God’s idea. He honors it. In some sense He ties it to salvation (1 Timothy 2:15). Then, heaping honor on honor, God chooses to enter this world through a woman (Galatians 4:4). This relates to His eternal plan for the woman to prevail over Satan through her offspring (Genesis 3:15; Revelation 12:3-5). Mary gives birth to “the Son of the Most High,” Immanuel—literally, “God with us” (Matthew 1:23).