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We are Alyssa and Bri, two sisters who believe God wants more for women than we've been taught. Join us as we dive into the intersection of faith and feminism, learning together as we go.
Welcome to the We Are More podcast. My name is Alyssa. And my name is Bree.
Speaker 2:We're 2 sisters passionate about
Speaker 1:all things faith and feminism. We believe that Jesus trusted, respected, and encouraged women to teach and preach his word. And apparently, that's controversial. Get Get comfy.
Speaker 2:How many times can I get away with singing Mary, did you know in this episode? In the
Speaker 1:next 3 episodes. Yeah. Not a lot.
Speaker 2:No. Maybe 2. I like the clayey conversion.
Speaker 1:We know. They you already told them that.
Speaker 2:I like the clayey conversion. Do you know that I like clayey conversion's entire Christmas album?
Speaker 1:That's so old, though. Like, is that a reference that people would get now?
Speaker 2:Well, if you were born in right here, and you remember him not winning American Idol, He came out with a Christmas album after that, and it was a treasure. It was very good, but it's not one that's lasted
Speaker 1:No. No. Which surprises me, because there are certain ones that just you hear every year no matter what. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:For
Speaker 1:instance, that 1 NSYNC song Yeah. Was on the radio today.
Speaker 2:And Britney Spears.
Speaker 1:Which one from Britney Spears? It's something about Santa.
Speaker 2:Hello. Okay. It's not coming to my brain, but I can hear her voice.
Speaker 1:Where's it coming from?
Speaker 2:Maybe I need to see a therapist. That's a given.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So we are over here prepping for Christmas,
Speaker 2:and we're exhausted. I'm so tired. Yesterday was my work Christmas party, and I dragged Alyssa along with me because I can't do anything by myself. And just like just being out late. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:I'm so old. Like, it's taking it's gonna take me days to
Speaker 1:recover. Oh, yeah. We didn't get home until 1 AM. I know. And that, I have very much passed the age where that's okay on
Speaker 2:my body. It's not okay. I woke up this morning, and I was like, was I hit by a truck? Which truck was it? I didn't get a license plate.
Speaker 1:That's unfortunate. Well, also, a 100% of the people at that party said, are you gonna talk about this on your podcast? I know.
Speaker 2:And I said, yes. So here we are. There you go.
Speaker 1:Discussing it on the podcast. But we've also had this week has just been insane. We've had 2 nights of recitals. Mhmm. We had your party.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:We've got I mean, just even the day that, like, baking. And we went up to Costco today, and that was crazy.
Speaker 2:We're just, like, trying to prepare for Christmas in general, like Christmas shopping, Christmas oh, the elf on the shelf.
Speaker 1:And we've kind of failed hard this year with the elf on
Speaker 2:the shelf.
Speaker 1:We bought an elf, what, maybe 2, 3 years ago now? Yeah. Because your daughter
Speaker 2:suckered me into it. Well, okay. I had said absolutely no to
Speaker 1:the Elves on the shelves. I was out. I was not doing that because it's such a commitment. Mhmm. Like, you have to remember every single night, and there's no universe where I'm remembering that every night of December.
Speaker 1:But it's not gonna happen. And so Brianna decided one day,
Speaker 2:I'm gonna buy an elf. Because we were walking through the store, and she goes, auntie, every other kid in my school has an elf, and I'm so alone. And so, obviously, it's my duty as an aunt, obviously,
Speaker 1:to purchase that. But the rule was, if she bought it, it was on Brie till the end of time. I don't care if she moves out someday. She has to come back every night in December. I don't care where you go.
Speaker 1:Every night of December, you have to come back and do this. And it's exhausting. It is exhausting. It's exhausting for me, and I don't even have to do it. It's just like a mental energy of, like, did she move them?
Speaker 1:Do I need to check? Would that be insulting? And I
Speaker 2:I wanna have all these grand plans and make it so magical, but I just can't be bothered.
Speaker 1:Okay. But here's the trick. I bought and we'll use this tonight because it just came in. I bought this box on Himu, and it's got every day has a little card and a different thing that the elf can do, and I think it was, like, $10, and it's 25 days worth of elf activities. Good for the elves.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So you don't have to think quite as much.
Speaker 2:You're the one that wants to get all of the pets and all of this stuff. That's because I have
Speaker 1:clearance problem. We go out the day after Christmas to get the Christmas clearance things. Mhmm. And it is a heavy addiction for me.
Speaker 2:I love that day. I love that day. Alyssa and I, the day after Christmas, after being exhausted from Christmas, we will get our booties up in the morning, and we go around to all the different stores, any store that we can think of, and get all of the Christmas clearance stuff. I stock up on, like, 32 rolls of wrapping paper.
Speaker 1:I don't think we've gone through the amount of wrapping paper we bought the 1st year we did this.
Speaker 2:I know. I gave away tons for free last year.
Speaker 1:Oh, I remember that.
Speaker 2:I posted it on the Facebook marketplace, and it was just like, free. Whoever wants, like, 12 rolls of wrapping paper and tags and bows and all of the Christmas themed little gifts from TJ Maxx or something. Because you can hoard those things.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah. Like the soaps and stuff, they're not gonna go bad. Give those to a teacher. Mhmm. And we also get decor.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So that's what's good. We I
Speaker 1:would say TJ Maxx and Marshall's are my favorite ones to hit.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But you can get some good stuff at the Michaels.
Speaker 1:Or we've even gone to the Dollar Store Mhmm. And gotten a lot of wrapping paper.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Because it's, like, 25¢. Yes.
Speaker 1:So just so you if you want a little life hack
Speaker 2:and you have some extra storage space, start hoarding. Advice for the day. It's okay to hoard if you have good intentions. What? This could be useful one day.
Speaker 1:Someday, we're gonna have to make t shirts, and that's gonna go on it. Yeah. And people will be horrified.
Speaker 2:So today, on a serious note,
Speaker 1:we are starting a series that's gonna take us through till Christmas. Christmas.
Speaker 2:Oh, dear. That's scary. You're welcome.
Speaker 1:On Mary, the mother of Jesus. Because there are 4000 Marys in the bible, and so we have to be specific.
Speaker 2:Mary, mother of Jesus. Yes. She should have a nickname. Mary, m m o j. Marge.
Speaker 2:Good. That'll help. Armaj.
Speaker 1:So we're gonna talk about Mary's life a little bit. We know some of her story from the bible, but obviously, there's big gaps. Mhmm. And so we'll talk about who she who we think she might have been as a real person.
Speaker 2:There's also a lot of because obviously she's such a I don't wanna say iconic, but she's iconic.
Speaker 1:I think that's the
Speaker 2:definition of iconic. Other religions have different stories about her and things that they have believed for, you know, centuries that, like, we didn't grow up learning about. So it's interesting to read about those things. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think, especially, the Catholic faith it's it's very centered around Mary in
Speaker 2:a lot of ways. Because we don't, as conservative Christians, we don't put a lot of emphasis on Mary, I don't think.
Speaker 1:I I also wouldn't call us conservative Christians.
Speaker 2:Not us. The the conservative Christians. We we're not. I think it's pretty clear we're not. I think we we moved fast that one.
Speaker 1:Yeah. She's not talked about a ton. The only times you hear about her in church are when you're talking about Jesus' birth.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So that one sermon around Christmas time.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And she's really just a small part of the story. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And
Speaker 1:then you maybe hear about her at Jesus' crucifixion. So maybe around Easter, you hear that, like, oh, she was there. Or, like, maybe was crying.
Speaker 2:Maybe a Mother's Day thing. Maybe. Maybe.
Speaker 1:So it's pretty rare to hear about her
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:For for my experience, anyway. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:I also find it interesting to see different depictions of her. Mhmm. I'd like to dive a little bit deeper into that maybe in the next couple episodes, but the version of Mary that pops into your head immediately Mhmm. When you think Mary, mother of Jesus, Maj, is definitely not what she looked like in reality.
Speaker 1:No. She's in light blue with Mhmm. With the nice little veil over her head.
Speaker 2:Caucasian? Yeah.
Speaker 1:When in reality, she was, like, what, 14? There I mean, I don't think we know for sure, but there are estimates anywhere from 12 to 20. So very young.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Also Not Caucasian?
Speaker 1:She's from Israel. Yeah. So she's gonna be a totally different race than what we're seeing in
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:In pictures. Not pictures. Paintings, depictions.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So today, we're gonna focus on the the beginning of what we know of her story. Mhmm. So that's
Speaker 2:when The beginning. When she's told
Speaker 1:that she's going to be the mother of Jesus
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Which wow. What a thing.
Speaker 2:Terrifying. Right? I mean, why?
Speaker 1:It's terrifying to find out you're going to be a mother
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Which was the mother of Jesus, and plus also you're a virgin. Plus also
Speaker 2:There's angel's gonna show up in front of you. Put that into your reality. I'm sitting in my room, I'm scrolling on my phone, and all of a sudden, an angel of the Lord was upon me that I was so afraid.
Speaker 1:He's sitting at the end of your bed like,
Speaker 2:hey, Britney. Hey. I need to tell you something.
Speaker 1:So we went through all of the gospels today to see what the birth stories looked like from each of those perspectives. And I'm sure that I've learned this at some point along the way.
Speaker 2:Along the way of life.
Speaker 1:But in case you haven't, and for those of us like me and Brie who totally forgot
Speaker 2:We have the memory of a goldfish. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Luke is really the only gospel that tells this part of the story. Mhmm. So Matthew tells the story kind of from Joseph's perspective. He focuses in on when Joseph finds out that Mary's pregnant, and he decides that he's gonna not marry her, but he's not really gonna tell anybody about that right away. He's not gonna tell anybody why.
Speaker 2:He's going to quietly quit. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then, of course, the angel of the lord comes to him and says, hey. Don't be an idiot. And so that's Matthew's story. Mhmm. And then Mark starts the story with, basically, John the Baptist coming in and saying, oh, hey.
Speaker 1:Jesus is coming. Prepare the way. Mhmm. And then jumps right into Jesus being baptized and then tempted. So, really, we we skip very far.
Speaker 1:We skip a lot in Mark. And then John also kinda starts with he he's more vague, I guess. He kind of says, like, and the word was with God and, you know, things like that.
Speaker 2:But it's not By the way,
Speaker 1:I'm John. But it's not specifically and here's what happened when Jesus was born. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:So Luke is really the only gospel where we're getting Mary's story.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Which I I where we're getting Mary's story. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Which I I feel like that's generally the Christmas story, when people Mhmm. Sit around before they start opening presents and they read the Christmas story.
Speaker 1:It's Luke chapter 2. Yeah. But we're actually gonna start in Luke chapter 1. Because we want to. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And also, that's where Mary is. Yep. Like, she's number 1. But actually, this story starts even earlier than Mary, which I Mhmm. Find so interesting.
Speaker 1:So it starts with John the Baptist. If you don't know, John the Baptist is Jesus' cousin. He is a little bit of a I don't I don't know how to say this and not sound blasphemous. He's a little bit of a weird guy.
Speaker 2:I picture, like have you seen 7 Brides for 7 Brothers? Well, yes. I know that you have. You out there. You know the main guy?
Speaker 2:He's kinda like wilderness man. Yeah. That's who I picture as John the Baptist.
Speaker 1:John the Baptist was I I think I think it's fair to call him strange because at the time, people also looked at him like, you're a little odd.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Like, he did live in the wilderness. He ate locusts and honey. It wasn't cutting his hair. Like, he's he was an odd guy.
Speaker 2:What kind of a diet is that? I'm really unclear. I eat sticky bugs all the time.
Speaker 1:I just love sticky bugs. They're slimy Yeah. And satisfying.
Speaker 2:There's never been a more appropriate moment for that quote. But John the Baptist was
Speaker 1:kind of foretold to be the person that announced the coming of Jesus.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Like, he was gonna kinda go before Jesus and prepare the way for him, just like Jesus goes before us and prepares the way to heaven.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So here in Luke, we see the beginning of the chapter of chapter 1 talking about John the Baptist. The angel comes to John the Baptist's father.
Speaker 2:Oh, yes. This is a good story.
Speaker 1:Listen up. I'm not gonna read through the whole thing because, otherwise, we're gonna be reading we're just gonna read the whole time, and
Speaker 2:we'll get bored. Kinda nice. Very, like, ASMR. I like being read to. You do.
Speaker 2:I read to Bree well,
Speaker 1:I used to all the time. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:That's
Speaker 1:soothing. So the couple in question here are Zechariah and Elizabeth. And Zechariah is a Jewish priest, and he's at the temple. It's his it's his day to be on duty.
Speaker 2:I don't know. And Elizabeth is Mary's cousin.
Speaker 1:Right? Correct. Yep. So she's much older. The both of them are much older.
Speaker 1:They're like they never had kids, and they're past the point of having kids.
Speaker 2:They're past the point of no return. That's the Phantom of the Opera. Thank you. You're welcome.
Speaker 1:So they've kind of lost hope in having kids. It's not that they didn't want to have kids. It's simply that they were not able to up until this point. Mhmm. And the Bible just sort of says, and they were both very old, which is how you wanna be remembered in history.
Speaker 2:Her womb was dusty, and that's that.
Speaker 1:Alright. So, anyways, Zacharias at the temple. It's his turn, and he's in in the sanctuary. I don't know. The back.
Speaker 1:And really, I'm trying to think of a comparison to our churches now, but there really isn't a good one. He's just in the back. But it says he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. So he's he's not out where the public is praying. He's kind of in a private area.
Speaker 1:And the angel Gabriel comes to him, and says, basically, hey. Surprise. Your wife is gonna be pregnant. You're gonna name him John. This is really important.
Speaker 1:So this is verse 13. But the angel said, don't be afraid, Zechariah. God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John. You will have great joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord.
Speaker 1:And then it goes on to say some more things about him. But, essentially, it says, he's gonna be very godly. He's gonna be awesome. He's gonna do great things. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And Zechariah, I just want you to picture this for a moment. You're at work. Okay? Picture it like you're at work. You're in your office.
Speaker 1:You go to the break room or the bathroom or wherever it is that you can have a private moment. You're not expecting anything, and all of a sudden, the angel of the Lord
Speaker 2:Just like from before at the end of my bed.
Speaker 1:Yep. He's sitting in a corner. Okay.
Speaker 2:Babe is like, hey, buddy. Guess who's back?
Speaker 1:And you're, like, retirement age. Okay? You're you're done. You're out. And the angel's like, oh, hey.
Speaker 1:By the way, you're gonna have a baby, or your wife's gonna have a baby. Hope your knees still work. And he's gonna be amazing and change the face of the earth, you know, whatever. And so Zechariah does something very human, I think, and he says, that's not possible because we're old. And on the one hand, you're like, come on, man.
Speaker 1:There's an angel right there. You're gonna ask questions.
Speaker 2:Maybe it was common back then. Maybe angels were hanging around all the time.
Speaker 1:Maybe. I don't think so. No.
Speaker 2:I don't think so.
Speaker 1:So. But at the same time, I think it's it's semi reasonable to be like, okay. But really? Am I am I dreaming? Are we okay?
Speaker 1:I'm here.
Speaker 2:I have my doubts.
Speaker 1:Did I have too much wine this morning?
Speaker 2:I don't know. Am I
Speaker 1:breathing in these incense a
Speaker 2:little bit too much more than I should?
Speaker 1:And so the angel says, yeah. Get ready, buddy.
Speaker 2:This is happening whether you
Speaker 1:like it or not. But, also, because you questioned me, you won't be able to speak until the baby's born.
Speaker 2:He takes a piece of duct tape, a piece of miracle duct tape Ah, yes. Slaps it on his mouth.
Speaker 1:And I just find that absolutely hilarious, because when you think about that, Zachariah has this really important information to share now. We don't hear that Gabriel then went to Elizabeth, his wife, and said, hey. By the way, you're about to have a baby at, who knows, like, 70 plus years old?
Speaker 2:Plus, also, would she even like, wow. Was she having periods? Did she miss a period and then she was like, uh-oh.
Speaker 1:That's true.
Speaker 2:I don't know. She not having periods, and then all of a sudden, she's like, do I just have gas? Oh, no. That's a child inside me.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:I need more information. I they don't
Speaker 1:give it. And none of the other apostles decided to write about this, so I think
Speaker 2:this is rude. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:John did not write his own birth story in his book. I think he should've.
Speaker 2:It's just Luke. I think John is a little bit vain. He could've. He could've, but He didn't. He did not.
Speaker 2:He failed
Speaker 1:us. Sorry. Sorry, John.
Speaker 2:One day, when we get up to heaven, we're gonna have some words. I think you need to
Speaker 1:talk to Elizabeth. I don't think you need to talk to John. He was he doesn't remember this. Fine. Alright.
Speaker 1:So so that's basically the story of John the Baptist. Elizabeth is Mary's cousin, so that's kind of the link there. She's very old. She gets pregnant. Her husband can't talk for 9 solid months, which, you know, maybe is great.
Speaker 1:I don't know.
Speaker 2:You know what? I wouldn't complain.
Speaker 1:So it says that she went into seclusion for 5 months. So I don't know exactly what that means. If it means she was bedridden, if it means, like, she just didn't wanna talk to anybody.
Speaker 2:No. She was like, listen. I'm old. This is wrecking my body. I'm going to be in bed for 5 months.
Speaker 1:That's fair.
Speaker 2:And you can feed me grapes.
Speaker 1:That sounds great. That's what she did.
Speaker 2:Martha knows what's up. I mean, what's her name?
Speaker 1:Elizabeth. Elizabeth. So then we get into the second section here, and this is this starts at verse 26. So when Elizabeth is now 6 months pregnant so we kind of have a time line here. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:She was in seclusion for 5 months. Now she's 6 months pregnant, so she's been hanging out with people for a month now. And now Gabriel decides he's gonna come back down to Earth and share some more information.
Speaker 2:Guess who's
Speaker 1:back? So he goes to Mary. And, again, there's, like, a million Marys in the Bible, so it gets a little confusing. But just for reference, we're only talking about Mary, the mother of Jesus, for the next couple of episodes.
Speaker 2:MMOJ. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So Gabriel goes to Mary. We don't know exactly how old Mary was, like we said. It she it's assumed she was quite young because she wasn't married yet. Mhmm. And they married very young at the time.
Speaker 1:I've heard anywhere from, like, 12 is, I think, the youngest I've heard. So Mary is engaged to a man named Joseph, and Joseph is in the line of king David. And it has been foretold that Jesus will be born from the line of king David
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Which is interesting to me because kind of he's not. Like, he is, but kind of he's not. True. Because he is not Joseph's biological son. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That is true. He is Mary's biological son. Mhmm. So, yes, kind of the line of King David, questionable.
Speaker 2:I just find that interesting.
Speaker 1:It's just an interesting little tidbit.
Speaker 2:Unless Mary and Joseph were secret cousins. Does it say that?
Speaker 1:It does not say that. But, frankly, it's possible.
Speaker 2:It definitely could be possible.
Speaker 1:So Gabriel goes to Mary. She's young. She's unmarried. She's described as a virgin, which is important to this story because, again, that was part of the prophecy was that the lord would be born to a virgin so that you knew that it was a miracle, that it wasn't human.
Speaker 2:It's just I feel like Christmas time, we get really focused on virgins. We just talk about them a lot around Christmas time and also when you watch Hocus Pocus.
Speaker 1:Well, I think what's interesting too, Brie and I were talking about this early earlier. Early. Early. And our best friend, Beth
Speaker 2:Yeah. Our best friend. Beth Allison Barr,
Speaker 1:if you haven't listened to any episodes where we talk
Speaker 2:about
Speaker 1:her, she wrote a book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood, and it talks about how back in sort of the medieval era, as a woman, you had more stature. You had more likelihood to be taken seriously in a religious space
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:If you were a virgin.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Highly recommend that you scoop up that book Oh, it's so good. And read it.
Speaker 1:She's got another one coming out soon, and I cannot wait. It's called Becoming the Pastor's Wife. Very excited.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But like you said, in the church setting with the pope and all of those people, they paid attention to the women that were virgins.
Speaker 1:Because at the time, sex was seen as more of like a, I don't wanna exactly say sinful, but human,
Speaker 2:not Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, religious and ethereal and whatever. It was like this human thing. And so a woman that had not done that yet Mhmm. Was considered more spiritual. Spiritual.
Speaker 1:Whereas now, it's the it's completely flipped. Whereas a woman has more status in the church if she is married
Speaker 2:With children.
Speaker 1:With children. Yeah. And then you can look at countless resources talking about how women are supposed to have Christian women are supposed to have sex with their husband all the time. Yeah. Terrible resources, but they're out there.
Speaker 1:But I just think that's an interesting little thing that
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:At this time, it was the fact that she was unmarried. Mhmm. She was chosen because of that. Mhmm. Because she was relatively single.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Unmarried and a woman in that time period. Being a woman, you had no authority, no power.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And she we'll get into what she says in a little bit about how her name is gonna be remembered now, and I think it's really cool. So the angel Gabriel comes to her, and he says, greetings, favored woman. This is the NLT. Greetings, favored woman.
Speaker 1:The lord is with you. And it says, confused and disturbed. Mary tried to think what the angel could mean.
Speaker 2:By the side of Gabriel in a towel.
Speaker 1:And I think that's I mean, yeah. Confused and disturbed.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That sounds right. Who are you? Yeah. And why are you in my bathroom?
Speaker 2:Go away. And, like,
Speaker 1:greetings, favored woman. The Lord is with you. Okay. Was he not before? Like, what
Speaker 2:are you doing here?
Speaker 1:Was he not before? Also, why are you here? Right.
Speaker 2:Why isn't it the Lord? I'm confused.
Speaker 1:Well, he will be in a minute. Just give it a sec. Alright. And so the angel tells her not to be afraid, that she's found favor with the lord. He tells her that she's gonna conceive a son and name him Jesus, and that Jesus will essentially save the world.
Speaker 1:So she asks him, how can this happen? I'm a virgin. Mhmm. Because yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1:That's a fair question.
Speaker 2:At least she knew how babies were made. Yeah. So there's that.
Speaker 1:It's not a bridgerton situation.
Speaker 2:Oh, I guess they were sharing things with their daughters back then.
Speaker 1:I actually think they may have been a little more open than even we are now, or at least than the Christian world is now. The angel also tells her that Elizabeth, her cousin, is also pregnant, which Mary did not know. Now Elizabeth lives about a week's journey away, according to map resources, I guess. I I looked it up. So she lives about a week journey away.
Speaker 1:But I do find it really interesting that she didn't know, that Mary didn't know.
Speaker 2:I mean, how did they send word and stuff back then? They would have to send like,
Speaker 1:a person. A messenger. But you would think that someone in those 6 months would have traveled from one town to the other.
Speaker 2:No. Elizabeth was like, don't tell anyone. This is weird.
Speaker 1:Well, to be fair, for the 1st 5 months, she was secluded. She was alone. So potentially, that's why. So this is how Mary finds out that Elizabeth is pregnant. We don't know what their relationship looked like.
Speaker 1:You know, were they best buds? There's clearly a huge age gap there.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Are they first cousins? Are they, like, third cousins? No. I don't know.
Speaker 1:Do they see each other at family reunions once a year? I don't know. So this part is where, the different translations differ a little bit. Mary finds out she finds out about Elizabeth. She tells the angel, I am the lord's servant.
Speaker 1:May everything you have said about me come true. And then the angel leaves. And then she goes to see Elizabeth. But I wanna pause there for a minute, because from verse 38 to verse 39, where she says, alright. I I'm in.
Speaker 1:Whatever you need from me, I will do, to now she's going over to see Elizabeth. She leaves her home and goes to see her cousin Elizabeth. Just the I mean, take Mary out of context a little bit of the holy images that we see of her and things like that, and just make her a real, probably teenage child Mhmm. Who now has to think,
Speaker 2:I have
Speaker 1:to tell my fiance this.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. I have
Speaker 1:to tell my parents this. Yep. Who's gonna believe me? Plus, also, I have to have a baby. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Was not prepared for that. And I just, I mean, it's hard enough to find out you're pregnant if you want to be pregnant.
Speaker 2:That would be so scary. This happens, I'm sure, all the time today, but, like, teenagers getting pregnant and having to tell, you know, their family, their partner, it's terrifying. Right.
Speaker 1:And then put on top of that, the fact that this is not her partner's child.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:She's not married. And at the time, the consequences for something like this could be huge for a woman.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:A woman caught in adultery could be stoned. I don't know necessarily what it would be for a woman that was not married, but it wouldn't be good.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And she's probably thinking, oh, Joseph. I hope he doesn't
Speaker 1:ditch me. Right. And we also don't know what their relationship was. I think in Christianity, we really try and portray Mary and Joseph as, like, in love, and they're so excited to get married and whatever. But the reality of the time would have likely been that this was either an arranged marriage
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Or a marriage where they didn't know each other terribly well, if they'd even met at all. Yeah. So this lovey dovey, oh, he stayed with her because he actually really was in love with her, I think is kind of a narrative that we wanna put on it because it makes us more comfortable. Yeah. The reality is based on Matthew, who talks about Joseph's side of things a little bit more, is that the angel Gabriel, who's doing a lot
Speaker 2:he's doing a lot right now. He's taking his rounds.
Speaker 1:He goes to Joseph and says, don't do this. Don't leave her. This is actually the son of God. She's actually telling the truth, and that's what makes him stay. It's not their relationship.
Speaker 1:It's not Mary. It's Gabriel saying, don't be a moron. Mhmm. I just think I don't know. That part of the story just hits me, even though it's it's like a blank part of the story.
Speaker 1:What happened to her? What was going through her mind? Because, yeah, she says, alright. I'll do what I gotta do, and we we almost forget that there's more to the story.
Speaker 2:I think she's so courageous Mhmm. Because she says, yes. Whatever you need me to do, I'll do. But it's not like she's not afraid. Right.
Speaker 2:Because then she flees to go see Elizabeth. In my my understanding of if it were me, I'd be like, I need to get out of this town. Right. I need some space.
Speaker 1:I need to breathe. I'm gonna go see
Speaker 2:my cousin because she's pregnant, and she's probably going through some stuff too.
Speaker 1:Yep. Well and so we don't know the next verse just says, and this is the NLT. Some of them say she rushed right there. But the NLT says, a few days later, Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea to the town where Zechariah lived, and she goes and sees Elizabeth. And she actually stays with Elizabeth for about 3 months.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So yeah. We don't know. Did she tell Joseph before she left?
Speaker 2:Yeah. It really just depends on what their relationship was like.
Speaker 1:If you
Speaker 2:they weren't even talking Right. Probably not.
Speaker 1:Did she tell her parents before she left? Was this a thing that later on, it says something and this is a different part of the story, but it's like, Mary hid these things in her heart. Was this something she hid in her heart until it became clear that other people needed to know? Mhmm. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:We don't know. Until she started showing.
Speaker 1:Right. My my thought here, and this is Alyssa's interpretation, would be that she didn't say anything to anyone, and she left.
Speaker 2:I feel like maybe she would've told Elizabeth.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I mean before.
Speaker 2:Hey, best friend. Guess what? Something happened.
Speaker 1:Well, when she gets to Elizabeth, the first thing that happens is it says the child in Elizabeth's stomach leaped for joy when he heard the sound of Mary's voice. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:So it
Speaker 1:would have been John the Baptist. And it's such an interesting picture. You just imagine these 2 women who probably knew each other, but you're talking about, what, like a 50, 60 year age gap? Yeah. These are not best friends.
Speaker 2:No. I mean yeah.
Speaker 1:And they're both now pregnant at the same time. It's weird. Mary shows up, and Elizabeth just knows.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Now mind you, Zechariah, who was part of the story before Still can't talk.
Speaker 2:He can't talk. That's true.
Speaker 1:But he kinda doesn't matter anymore. I I know that sounds a little bit harsh, but this is a story about women.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:This is a story about Mary and Elizabeth, and they spend 3 months together commiserating, puking Yeah. Having their ankles swell.
Speaker 2:Looking for pickles and ice cream. They didn't have those things yet, so they were sad. They were very sad.
Speaker 1:And just trying to deal with very complicated situations, because both of them are gonna get weird looks in town. Yeah. Elizabeth is old, and she's pregnant.
Speaker 2:So you kinda cling to people who can kind of understand you a little bit, like trauma bonding. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. They who else is gonna understand this?
Speaker 2:Gabriel,
Speaker 1:or that's it. It doesn't say that Gabriel came to Elizabeth. He could have. That could be part of the bible that we just don't necessarily get to know. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:But even so, Elizabeth knows this is a miracle. Mhmm. She knows that this is of god. This would not have happened otherwise.
Speaker 2:Yeah. My dusty womb. Her period stopped along. She's like, I'm not prepared to deal with the toddler, I'm so old.
Speaker 1:And then Mary's there, and how comforting for Mary to have someone and we don't know if she told anybody yet, but to have someone believe her unquestioningly. Mhmm. If you've ever been in a situation where you've got something weird happened to you
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And you know nobody's gonna believe it, but then you go to that one person that just, like, fully trust you. It's like, alright.
Speaker 2:It sounds stupid. Mhmm. But if you say it Outrageous confidence in you. Yeah. Just, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I believe you. Uh-huh. Let's get them.
Speaker 1:Like, for instance, Bri is the most discerning person that I know. If Brianna does not like someone, I it's not even that they're sort of a bad person. They likely murdered someone. Okay? And so there have been people recently that Brie has said, well, I don't really like that person for x y z reasons.
Speaker 1:And I'll be over here kind of like, well, I don't really see it, but I 100% believe you because she's been proven right 4,000 times.
Speaker 2:It's a gift and a curse. It's a
Speaker 1:gift and a curse.
Speaker 2:I am, and I'm proud of that. I feel like I have a superpower.
Speaker 1:But it's just one of those things that I I just imagine Mary's feeling here of just knowing that for the rest of her life, people are gonna question her on this.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Society is going to question her.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:And to have that person, I just can imagine that feeling in your heart to just feel completely at ease, completely trusted.
Speaker 2:And I think there's something different about female relationships there. You know? Not only does this person believe her unquestioningly, but she's also going through the same thing. She's a woman. There's just something about female relationships that are really special.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Not that, you know, guys are bad, but there's just something special. And everybody has well, I don't know if every woman has a special female relationship. I don't know where I'm going with this. It's going well.
Speaker 2:It's going well. It's women support women and whatnot. Hashtags. Wow.
Speaker 1:It was a journey. I enjoyed it. I'm tired. But one of the things that that what Elizabeth says when she first sees Mary
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So the the baby inside her has jumped for joy. Right? She says out. But my question is kind of like, why did she notice that was different? Because let me tell you, my son kicked me, jumped, whacked my ribs while I was pregnant.
Speaker 1:So I don't know what I would notice. He's jumping for joy. But here she is, and for some reason, this was different. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Different enough to get mentioned in the Bible. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It says, Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, god has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. So according to this, Mary hasn't even said anything yet. Now there could have been a conversation prior to this. We don't know. But according to the Bible, there is no conversation prior, and Elizabeth just knows.
Speaker 1:She says, your child is blessed. Why am I so honored that the mother of my lord should visit me? When I heard your greeting, the bay baby in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed because you believed that the lord would do what he said. Now could Mary have explained all this to her first?
Speaker 1:Sure. Absolutely. I don't think we get every moment of these scenes in the Bible.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But god probably gave her some supernatural understanding. Like, hey. By the way, she shouldn't have to explain herself.
Speaker 1:And just think of when you are in an incredibly vulnerable situation, and you're thinking, I am in so much trouble. Mhmm. This is gonna be horrible. Because that had to have gone through her head. Even if she trusts god, even if she believes that this is what she's supposed to do, that god will get her through it, She still doesn't know, is the path gonna be really bad?
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Is all of society about to reject me? Mhmm. Is Joseph about to reject me? She doesn't know any of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I mean told to her.
Speaker 2:She's doing it anyways. Mhmm. But that doesn't mean that it's gonna be easy. Right.
Speaker 1:So here she is with Elizabeth, and just just having an okay time. She's she's gonna be okay now because she has one person.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:It's not her significant other. It's another woman. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Well, that's what I was trying to say. I know. You're welcome.
Speaker 1:So then Mary sings a song.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:It's a little song.
Speaker 2:That's embarrassing. We don't sing on this podcast.
Speaker 1:She says, I'm not gonna sing it. I'm actually, please do. I am not gonna sing it.
Speaker 2:I'll sing it. You say it, then I'll sing it. Please don't. I'm ready. Oh, no.
Speaker 2:She says, oh, how my soul praises the lord. Oh. I'm
Speaker 1:done. How my spirit rejoices in god, my savior. For he took notice of his lowly servant girl. And from now on, all generations will call me blessed. For the mighty one is holy, and he has done great things for me.
Speaker 1:He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him. His mighty arm has done tremendous things. He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. He has brought princes down from their thrones and exalted the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands.
Speaker 1:He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever. That's a long section. That's verses 46 to 55.
Speaker 2:Real question. Was were the bible times a musical? Because I think a little bit. Based on what we're reading, people, they were just breaking out into song. And I've seen Wicked twice now, so I'm thinking maybe this was a Broadway show.
Speaker 1:Maybe. People are always busting into song.
Speaker 2:Joseph in the Technicolor Dreamcoat?
Speaker 1:That's a different Joseph. So I think this song that she
Speaker 2:I mean, I don't know. Maybe she sings it. Maybe she I don't know. I don't know how this is performed. She stood on a stage, and she sang.
Speaker 2:But
Speaker 1:I think this comes from a place of you can you can see the joy in the first couple of verses of just like, my soul is praising the lord. My spirit's rejoicing. And I think it comes in large part from Elizabeth.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:I think it comes from having support, having a person.
Speaker 2:And she had a week of travel time Mhmm. To be just thinking about this constantly. Like, oh, crap. Oh, crap. Oh, crap.
Speaker 2:Oh, crap. But then to have one person be like, hey. This is amazing. This is a good thing you're gonna be okay because I'm there with you. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Half the time, that's all you need is just a little bit of support.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And think of I don't know. In your life right now, if there's somebody that is really just going through
Speaker 2:it Mhmm.
Speaker 1:What is the thing that you could say to them that would be like this?
Speaker 2:Mhmm. You got this boo boo.
Speaker 1:This thing is amazing for you. Maybe you they got a new job and they're not loving it.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Think of all the incredible things you could do. You're gonna be amazing. You've you've got all of the resources that you need. Think of
Speaker 2:what we could do. Together. Just say you're sorry.
Speaker 1:Well, have you
Speaker 2:guys seen what it is?
Speaker 1:Very confused right now. So, Mary stays with Elizabeth for about 3 months and then goes home. That's
Speaker 2:a long visit.
Speaker 1:I mean, it is.
Speaker 2:I know that they visited for, like, long times back then because, dang, she had to travel back a week a week's time.
Speaker 1:But 3 months. It's it's a long house guest. Yeah. But they were puking together. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So communicative puking.
Speaker 1:So the assumption here, because you assume Elizabeth was about 6 months pregnant when Mary started on her journey, when she heard from Gabriela in the first place. Mhmm. It took her a week to get there. She stays about 3 months. So the assumption is kind of that Mary probably was there when Elizabeth gave birth
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And
Speaker 1:then kinda headed home afterwards.
Speaker 2:I wanna know how quickly after Elizabeth gave birth did Zach begin to speak.
Speaker 1:I mean, it based on what Gabriel said, it sounded like baby's born, you can talk again.
Speaker 2:That tape got ripped off your mouth. Yeah. That, like, heavenly tape.
Speaker 1:And she's like, ah, take it. Can we go back?
Speaker 2:Gabriel, phone a friend. I need a I need a favor.
Speaker 1:And then the rest of the story or the rest of this part of the story is much more specific to John the Baptist for a little while until you get to chapter 2. To me, it's once she leaves, that's another big question mark. And that's another part we don't know. Right? We know that at some point in here, Joseph finds out, and he doesn't find out from Gabriel because he convinces himself that he's gonna quietly leave her.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So he doesn't find out in times of great joy
Speaker 2:at first. No. He heard it through the rumor weed.
Speaker 1:Well, that's the question. It's like, did she tell him? Did she tell him? Did she come back to town and people started whispering?
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And that's how we found out. Did her dad go tell him?
Speaker 2:I feel like my assumption is that she didn't tell him, because I feel like you would've they would've written something about a discussion.
Speaker 1:That interaction. It's it's a 100% possible that she didn't.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And based on, again, the fact that they likely didn't have much of a relationship
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:It may not have even been appropriate for her to have a private conversation with him.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Very true.
Speaker 1:So it might have had to be her father or a servant or, you know, something along those lines. So she comes back into town three and a half months pregnant or so based on travel time.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Is she showing yet? Are people asking questions?
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:When was she supposed to get married? She was engaged. So did she kinda dip out on her wedding a little bit? You know? Like, what happened?
Speaker 1:Was her fiance chill with her just leaving for 3 months? Mhmm. There's so many questions that we just don't get to know. Mhmm. But when you start asking them and you start wondering what you would do, it makes her so much more human.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And I love to do that with, obviously, specifically, the women of the bible, because that's what we've been doing, but anyone in the bible, because we hold them all up on a pedestal in such a big way. Mhmm. And, obviously, they're really important figures.
Speaker 2:I feel like, especially if you grew up in the church, you've heard these stories so many times. You forget how miraculous they are. Yeah. Like, can you imagine an angel showing up? Yeah.
Speaker 2:An angel showing up and being like, guess what? Yeah. You're pregnant. That's insane. That's crazy.
Speaker 2:To a normal person. Mhmm. She was a normal person. I'm just a normal girl.
Speaker 1:I mean, think of like, let let's just, for argument's sake, say she's 15.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. What was
Speaker 1:happening in your life when you were 15?
Speaker 2:I was a loser.
Speaker 1:I was wearing weird clothes.
Speaker 2:I was doing weird things. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I'm just thinking the awkwardness of being Mhmm. And, you know, cultural differences. But in my world, in my perspective, you got acne all over your face.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:You're starting to fill out. I've got breast buds.
Speaker 2:At 15, they're they're more than buds.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. That's unfortunate for us.
Speaker 2:We had bosoms.
Speaker 1:You still really don't know who you are.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Honestly, I stand by this statement. You don't know who you are until you're 97.
Speaker 1:Oh, have you hit that? I have. The other day, I got carded, and Bree didn't.
Speaker 2:I just want it I just want it to stop. I just the gray hairs, the aging, my knees, my arthritis. I'm just I do the world is not stopping. It's not, and I pray for a peaceful death. Wow.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of the beginning of Mary's story. The next part of the story is her actually having baby Jesus. And Wait a second. She didn't give birth to a toddler Jesus?
Speaker 2:No. Baby in particular. Thank you for clarifying.
Speaker 1:I'm I'm glad I could help. And that's in Luke 2, which is when you'll all hear if you go to church, you'll hear a sermon on this in the next couple of weeks.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And they will read you all through Luke 2. And so we'll go through that a little bit next week. That's not gonna be our focus, mostly because I think we hear this part of the story a lot.
Speaker 2:And unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, Christ the lord. Do you want me to continue? Can you? And there shall be a sign. You shall see a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, laying in a manger, and and there shall be a sign.
Speaker 2:I'm telling you.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah. That's the basics of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You're welcome. I bet you didn't know that I knew that.
Speaker 1:Just real quick as we're kind of wrapping up this part of the story, Joseph decides not to leave her. Mhmm. What? What shock?
Speaker 2:I know. Those of you who haven't heard the story.
Speaker 1:And Wait. He comes back? And they're engaged, and they go to Nazareth. Right? I'm not insane.
Speaker 2:Yeah. They go back to his homeland or something because there's a census, and they're trying
Speaker 1:to it's in the village of Nazareth. So they go to Bethlehem, and there's no room for them at the inn, and she has
Speaker 2:to do this. But
Speaker 1:and that's it I don't mean to gloss over it. Obviously, that's super important part of the story. It's just that that's that I've heard that part a 1000000 times, and I wanna focus a little bit more on the parts of her life that we don't focus on.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. I just like making her real. Mhmm. You know? She's a real girl.
Speaker 2:She's just one of the girls who just so happened to, you know, be the mother of Jesus.
Speaker 1:And I think too I picture I think we we wanna picture the birth of Jesus as this, like, peaceful, lovely event.
Speaker 2:No. Yeah. I saw you give birth. And I'm gonna tell you right here, right now. Ew.
Speaker 2:Also, she's in a barn. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It was stinky. Childbirth at that time, as it was, was risky. Mhmm. Women were dying. Babies were dying.
Speaker 1:Again, she doesn't know what's about to happen here. Mhmm. She doesn't have any guarantees. She doesn't know she's gonna live through this.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And real late into her pregnancy, now suddenly, they're forced to go on this long, long journey, 4 girls riding on a donkey.
Speaker 2:It is crazy to me, because that could, like, send you under early labor right there.
Speaker 1:Oh, for sure. And she gets there. It's like, well, at least we're here. Mhmm. Oh, hey.
Speaker 1:By the way, you can't even have a room. No. There's nowhere to go. So here's a barn. I just I picture my birth stories, and they were not ideal, but there was a hospital involved.
Speaker 2:I am so sensitive to smells, and pregnant women are so sensitive to smells. Can you imagine the smell?
Speaker 1:No. I would not do well. No.
Speaker 2:I not only would I be pooping out a baby, I would be throwing up because it smelled disgusting. Things would be coming out of both ends.
Speaker 1:I think we wanna picture it as this peaceful, lovely event. And, I mean, think of any of our manger scenes. You know?
Speaker 2:Yeah. She's
Speaker 1:beautiful in the scenes.
Speaker 2:Didn't she
Speaker 1:her clothes didn't she looks, yeah, perfect. Mhmm. Whatever. That's not what's happening. No.
Speaker 1:This woman was in labor, and any women that have been in labor or have seen labor, you know she can't even yell at Joseph. That's upsetting. I mean, she could. She can. She could.
Speaker 1:Yeah. For sure. But not in
Speaker 2:the ways that you normally would. No.
Speaker 1:It wasn't his fault. I just think yeah. She she was having a hard time. There was no epidural. No.
Speaker 1:There were no drugs.
Speaker 2:She couldn't say, give me the juice. No.
Speaker 1:Have you
Speaker 2:seen that movie? How would to expect when you're expecting? Oh, yeah. Oh, no. It's not from that.
Speaker 2:It's from baby mama. Baby mama was a good one. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So next week, we'll talk a little bit more about her more adult life and the fact that she followed Jesus around in a lot of his ministries.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And I think that's it's just so cool. She's such a cool person even more than the fact that she she birthed the Lord, which is amazing.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:But the fact that she independently took up and also served his ministry Mhmm. Is just so very cool and just never ever talked about. So we're gonna go into that a little bit. We'll talk about her for the next couple of weeks. And then beginning of the year, we're gonna talk about our stories again.
Speaker 2:Bree's really excited. I don't know what more you want from me. I don't everybody knows everybody knows me
Speaker 1:now. 30 years' worth of stories.
Speaker 2:Stop it. 30, 97 years. Get it right. I'm so old. I've turned to dust.
Speaker 2:You know that part on Rapunzel when the witch falls out the window and, like, before she can even hit the ground, she disintegrates into dust?
Speaker 1:Yes. I do.
Speaker 2:That's me. Wow. Did you wanna sing
Speaker 1:a song about that real quick?
Speaker 2:No. I was just trying to think of one about dust, and I couldn't. Oh, the Oz Dust. Oh, there you go. We've seen Wicked.
Speaker 2:Did we mention that? Hey, here's a fun game. Re listen to this episode and have a little drink every time that we mention wicked. Wicked, wicked, wicked. Well, now they're trashed.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I did that on purpose.
Speaker 1:Alright. So we'll see you next week for part 2. I'm excited to keep talking about her. I just think she's just a really cool person. I know that's a weird thing to say.
Speaker 2:I think she's a real swell guy.
Speaker 1:Why? It's a weird thing to say, but I think more than just the holy version of Mary Mhmm. She had to be a tough lady.
Speaker 2:She's words I can't say because our mother listens to this podcast.
Speaker 1:Also, because I think many people would be offended. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But, like, in a
Speaker 2:good way. Like, I'm I'm complimenting her.
Speaker 1:Alright. So we'll see you next week.
Speaker 2:You'll hear from Alyssa, Brianna, and the MMOJ.
Speaker 1:Well, you're not gonna hear from her. We don't she's not a guest. Hear about her. You'll hear about her. I tried to give her a call.
Speaker 1:She didn't answer.
Speaker 2:That's rude. You can't say that. I think that's offensive.
Speaker 1:Last time, you asked Jesus if he had anything to
Speaker 2:say, and dad yelled, you know? So if you want to follow us on our social medias, TikTok, Instagram, I don't know. We might have a YouTube channel and a Facebook, but we're not active on those 2.
Speaker 1:We are a great time on TikTok, though.
Speaker 2:We're a great time all the time. I highly recommend that you read the captions on our post because I'm hilarious. So have a good time with that. And maybe if you're listening and you know someone from Alaska. Alaska.
Speaker 2:Send them this podcast and say you need some feminism in your life and maybe some of the Lord as well. So
Speaker 1:the I always say we'll see you next week, and I don't really know what else to say
Speaker 2:other than that. May the Lord bless and keep you. Happy Christmas time. Do you like cookies? Goodbye.
Speaker 2:Goodbye.