Dec. 11

Luke 1: 39-45

Mary Visits Elizabeth

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 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 the Lord would fulfil his promises to her!”

Today at church I bumped into a friend I haven't seen for ages.  She was very pregnant, due today in fact.  I wept with joy when I saw this as I have been praying for this couple to have a baby for years.  They have been through the pain of fertility treatment, acceptance that they wouldn't have a baby and were well on the road to adopting a baby from Africa when she fell pregnant. While this isn't quite the same thing as this story, the joy was there.  A real gift from God, an answer to prayer. God has fulfilled his promise to them.
When Mary found out she was pregnant she went to visit Elizabeth. She seems to have run there without telling even Joseph she was leaving.  In those days, being pregnant out of marriage was dealt with by stoning. There was a strong possibility that Joseph would be stoned too. Maybe Mary fled to protect them both from shame and possible death, while she sorted her head out.

It could also be that Elizabeth needed her. Not only was she an elderly first time mum, but her husband was mute, possibly deaf, and Elizabeth would have welcomed all the help she could get.

While Elizabeth was older and therefore should be the superior of the two women, Elizabeth reverses this and showers greetings on Mary. The baby has leaped in her womb, he is filled with the Spirit before he is even born.

Elizabeth is also filled with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit helps her recognise that the baby in Mary's womb is her Lord and Elizabeth states her submission to Him and the unborn Jesus is raised to a position of honour above all .