Annie Nagaoka: Mary, Did You Know?

My name is Annie Nagaoka, and this is Charlotte Nagaoka. We moved up here from Williamsburg in 2018. Before then I was living in Vallejo, California, and I saw a Super Bowl commercial of Williamsburg and decided to move across the country, which I did. And then I met Eric and our jobs moved us up here. We found the Falls Church because my mom's church in Colorado had a Fellows program. And she said, "Annie, I think that the Falls Church Anglican started the Fellows. You should check it out." And we did, and we loved it, so we stayed.

My favorite Christmas carol this year is “Mary, Did You Know?” and the line that really sticks out to me is when it says, "When you kissed your little baby, you kissed the face of God." And especially since having Charlotte, it's just really struck me how impactful that is for Mary to have her son be the Son of God.

In April, Charlotte was born. And when I was holding her, it really struck me that the God of our whole universe, who we depend upon for everything, made the decision to come down and be an incarnate baby, and become completely dependent on His creation in the form of a baby, and how awesome it is that our God would choose to come down and be absolutely dependent on His own creation. And so that was what made the Incarnation super impactful to me.