In this season of Advent we prepare for God to do a new and miraculous thing. To come to earth in human form. To walk, and talk, and live among us. To choose to become vulnerable as a newborn baby in order to show us true love. As much as the story of Christmas is about God doing a new thing, it is also about God building on all that God has done before. It is about God’s love story to humankind, recalling the times that God showed up in unexpected places, through unexpected people, to draw us ever closer. Take the story of Mary. A young, unassuming woman who stands on the shoulders of the women who came before her.