Luke (the gospel, not the person)

Here's my first thoughts from Luke 1:
This was a long chapter, so I read it over a few days and re-read it. But one thing that stuck out to me what the fact that Gabriel didn't treat Zechariah and Mary the same. Gabriel goes to Zechariah and says "you're going to be a daddy," and Zechariah's response is "How can I be sure of this? i'm an old man and my wife is well along in years." And Gabriel punishes him for his doubt and Zechariah can't speak until John is born. Then, a few paragraphs later, Gabriel goes to Mary and tells her she's going to give birth to a son and He will be "the Son of the Most High." And Mary says, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" And Gabriel doesn't punish her. I wonder why? She showed the same doubt, though her prophecy was a lot harder to swallow (I mean a couple of old folks getting pregnant vs. immaculate conception? haha), plus, I mean, she was going to be the mother of the Lord, Jesus. So maybe she got a little special treatment. :) I guess there's slightly different connotation in the two questions too (plus, we don't know how exactly they were asked, the meaning can be greatly changed by how it is spoken). Zechariah's seems more like, "prove it," and Mary's more like "explain how." I don't know, what do you guys think?

I was reading in Luke 2 today and the part near the middle (verse 40), puzzled me and got me thinking about something else too. It's talking about Jesus as a baby/child. It says "And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him." Now, I'm not sure if this was Jesus as a baby or when He was ... Read Morebecoming a kid (I know it's before He was 12, cuz the next story starts with him being 12), but if it was when He was a little baby, I found it interesting to think of a little baby being filled with wisdom. That got me thinking, how much to babies really know/understand? I mean, they don't have the communication skills yet, so they can't really tell us what they are thinking, but maybe they really understand more than we think they do. Then, I wonder if Jesus BECAME filled with wisdom as He grew, or if He was just born with all the knowledge He had when He was with the Father. Can you imagine, being baby Jesus and knowing everything there was to know about the universe, but needing someone to change your diaper? That truly is humbling Himself, like it talks about in Philippians. Anyways, just something I was thinking about.

Luke 3:15-17~> "The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering IN THEIR HEARTS if John might possibly be the the Christ. John answered them all..." (emphasis mine)
Later in the gospels, they use similar wording to show that Jesus read people's minds and answered questions that were hidden deep in their hearts (Luke 5:17-26). So, my ... Read Morequestion is, do you think John the Baptist performed miracles and could see into people's hearts? Part of me wants to boil it down to John knowing what they were thinking because of their faces or just knowing what people would probably think in this situation. But since they use such similar wording, I feel it deserves ponderment (not a word, just made it up, haha), cuz obviously they were trying to convey a similar situation. Anyways, what do you guys think? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think it numerates any miracles from John in the gospels, though I could be mistaken.