We are going to close out the year by looking at 25 posts on Mary and Joseph for Advent. Part 2: Mary gets affirmation from God through Elizabeth.
Luke 1:39-45 (NLT)
39 A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town 40 where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. 41 At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
42 Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. 43 Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? 44 When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. 45 You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.”
Dear God,
I can only imagine the buyer’s remorse Mary felt after Gabriel left her. It is easy to say yes in the moment, but then reality starts to set in:
● What will my parents say?
● What will Joseph say?
● What will my friends and the community say?
● Will Joseph break off the engagement?
● Who will ever believe me?
● Will the town stone me?
● How am I going to raise this baby?
● How can I be the person chosen to do this?
● Did I just imagine this whole thing? Am I really pregnant?
● This is not how I thought my life would go at all!
So she naturally set out to see Elizabeth, since Gabriel told her in verse 36 that she is pregnant too. Maybe she will understand.
I am sure all of these thoughts (and more) were running through her mind as she went to see Elizabeth. Perhaps she hoped Elizabeth and Zechariah would help her with her parents. Did she plan her first words to Elizabeth and Zechariah, hoping they would believe her?
But the best thing happened as soon as she walked into the room: affirmation! As soon as she got there, she never had to tell Elizabeth anything. Elizabeth just spontaneously told her, “Blessed are you among women, and your child will be blessed! How could this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For you see, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped for joy inside of me. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill what he has spoken in her!”
Mary had to have thought, “Oh, thank goodness! I do not have to justify anything to you. I can just tell you my story and you will believe me.” I am sure Zechariah and Elizabeth had a lot of written conversations about what Gabriel had told him, and now the puzzle was starting to make sense. I want to spend some time tomorrow breaking down Mary’s response to Elizabeth, so I will do the Magnificat later. Right now, I want to just sit with the relief. To acknowledge the anxiety and then the way you alleviated her fears.
I think it is interesting that Matthew gives us Gabriel’s visit to Joseph and Luke gives us his visit to Mary. Neither book gives both. Thank you for giving us both of these gospels.
Father, thank you for the little affirmations you give to me. There are times when I have great anxiety, but you are faithful to me, and you are always there to comfort me. I do not always come to you for that comfort. Sometimes I am sinful and try to assuage my anxiety with self-indulgence. But when I come to you, you comfort me. You sometimes send me signs and wonders or meet a need in a miraculous way. You are good. I am truly sorry for the times when I am only looking for distractions to ease my fear instead of looking to you.
I pray this in Jesus and with your Holy Spirit,
Amen
