“I see a splendid ‘Gabriel’ above the pelican; the angel’s hand points upward.”
“Glorious Gabriel! Angel of mothers and victories, by interpretation, ‘God’s champion!’ You’ve heard his titles, Cornelius?”
“I know that he bore victory to Gideon and lightened the way for Daniel’s conquest of all Babylon; nor do I forget that he was the angel which comforted giant Samson’s mother before her child was born.”
“Yea, he that made the sign of the cross, doing wondrously, above the smoke of Monoah’s altar, was after commissioned to greet and guide Mary, the mother of the Giant King of the new dispensation.”
“You’ve fine insights, Miriamne, but there’s incompleteness in your symbolism here.”
“True, I feel that; all interpretation of motherhood is inadequate; but look further.”
“I see the ‘Queen of Mothers!’ Why have you left her and the babe in such deep shadows?”
“That’s this life’s reality; but look higher.”
The chaplain complied; a vine trellis was swung aside, and he beheld, above the shadowed picture, in an arch reaching nearly to the roof of the temple, another, the latter a marvel of light and color.