Day 126: Luke 1:39–44

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped inside her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit (v. 41).

Imagine that you are Mary, thirteen or fourteen years old, but in a very different culture. You awakened to the sun playing a silent reveille over the Galilean countryside. You dress in typical fashion, a simple tunic draped with a cloak. A sash wrapped around the waist allows you to walk without tripping over the long fabric. You are the virgin daughter of a Jewish father, so you have draped your veil over your head and crossed it over your shoulders for the duration of the day. You have never known another kind of dress, so you are completely accustomed to the weight and the constant adjusting of a six-foot-long, four-foot-wide veil. Beneath the veil, thick, dark hair frames a deep complexion and near-ebony eyes.

Without warning, a messenger from God appears and announces that you have been chosen among women to bear the Son of God. You can hardly believe, yet you dare not doubt. As suddenly as the angel appeared, he vanishes. You are flooded with emotions.

What do you imagine you would be thinking and feeling right now? What in the world does a young woman do after receiving such life-altering news?

Often God allows the space between the lines of His Word to capture our imaginations and prompt us to wonder. Not this time. He told us exactly what Mary did next.

Remember Gabriel’s declaration. The most revolutionary news since Eden’s fall: “the Savior is on His way.” Announcing the soon-coming Messiah, he offered the stunned adolescent an almost out-of-place slice of information. By the way, “Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she . . . is in her sixth month” (v. 36).

How like God! In the middle of news with universal consequences, He recognized the personal consequences to one girl.

For years the scene of Mary running to Elizabeth has tendered my heart. I’d like to share my thoughts on this moment from my first book, Things Pondered: From the Heart of a Lesser Woman. These words were never meant to provide doctrinal exegesis, but to invite us to the momentary wonder of being a woman:

“How tender the God who shared with her through an angel that someone nearby could relate. The two women had one important predicament in common—questionable pregnancies, sure to stir up some talk. Elizabeth hadn’t been out of the house in months. It makes you wonder why. As happy as she was, it must have been strange not to blame her sagging figure and bumpy thighs on the baby. And to think she was forced to borrow maternity clothes from her friends’ granddaughters. But maybe Elizabeth and Mary were too busy talking between themselves to pay much attention. Can you imagine their conversation over tea? One too old, the other too young. One married to an old priest, the other promised to a young carpenter. One heavy with child, the other with no physical evidence to fuel her faith. But God had graciously given them one another with a bond to braid their lives forever.

“Women are like that, aren’t they? We long to find someone who has been where we’ve been, who shares our fragile places, who sees our sunsets with the same shades of blue.”31

Elizabeth lived fifty to seventy miles from Nazareth. Mary had no small trip ahead of her and no small amount of time to replay the recent events. She probably joined others making the trip, but we have no reason to assume anyone traveled with her. Can you imagine how different she was already beginning to feel? How did it feel to finally enter the village Zechariah and Elizabeth called home? What do you imagine was going through Mary’s mind as she passed village merchants and mothers with children?

Finally, Mary entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. Mary’s words of salutation may have been common, but Elizabeth’s reaction was far from common. The infant John jumped within his mother’s womb, and Elizabeth was suddenly “filled with the Holy Spirit” (v. 41). Elizabeth proclaimed Mary and her child “blessed” and asked a glorious question: “Why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (v. 43).

Mary and Elizabeth shared not only tender similarities but also vital differences. Elizabeth pointed out the most profound difference: she was expecting her son; Mary was expecting her Lord. The concepts seem almost unfathomable even with the complete revelation of the Word. Don’t miss the riches that follow Elizabeth’s inspiring question. She went on to announce: “As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!” (Luke 1:44–45).