#17!

Read: Luke 1:39-45

Listen: Joy

Today's passage is always a particularly powerful, humbling, and beautiful one to come too. The thoughts that come to mind as Luke saw fit to record this most wonderful of conversations between 2 faithful women.

Mary came to Elizabeth. The moment her eyes laid rest on Elizabeth's stomach, must have brought an overwhelming sense of delight. The angel had told Mary that Elizabeth was with child, and so it was!

As Mary approaches Elizabeth, Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit, and the baby in her womb leaps with joy. Elizabeth proclaim's what is this that the mother of my Lord, should come to visit me? I could weep at such faith. In modern lenses it is easy to gloss over this passage. we liken it with the same familiarity as the ornaments we string on our tree each year, and save the passage for around now. BUT, Elizabeth is declaring the baby, the Messiah! The Promised One. Her faith has led her to believe and through the Holy Spirit she is able to proclaim the announcement of the One who was promised to come. She recognizes Him instantly. These words would be echoed again in years to come by the disciple Peter when Jesus asks him who he believes him to be. Peter will answer, 'You are the Christ.' Elizabeth, was neither asked nor given the privy to see the Lord in the flesh. She beautifully states in the truth of the knowledge of the Word and His promises from times past that what God said is to be.

We are told back in the first verses that John would be filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb. We are given the gift of this event to have our own faith strengthened. For the moment that the forerunner was next to the Promised One, he leaped in his mother's womb! How beautiful is this scene.

Finally, Elizabeth says, " and blessed is she that believed." I truly cannot help but cry here. The older barren woman speaking to the pregnant virgin girl. She is celebrating her belief that what God promised is coming to pass. Mary went to see Elizabeth, following the direction of Gabriel. There stood Elizabeth, much advanced in years, carrying the prophet John. There stood a young girl, who trusted in the promises of the Lord, holding in her womb, the Creator of all things.

Take time to meditate on this passage today. To delight in the stunningly beautiful moment shared by 2 women who faithfully trusted that what God says is true and who delighted in the law of the Lord. May our own hearts be filled with the knowledge of He who is able. Amen and Amen.