God who takes the initiative. Mary, without having known a man, will have a child. This child—like Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Samson, and Samuel—will have an important place in God’s plan. In a way, all those earlier births were announcements and signs pointing to this particular birth. But this birth is even more extraordinary than that of Isaac and the rest. It is a virgin birth. In this context, it is interesting to note that at one end and the other of this list of barren women are two acts of conception