PrintToday's "Learning with Luke" (3)
24 December, 2012
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. At the sound of Mary's greeting, Elizabeth's child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, "You are blessed by God above all other women, and your child is blessed. What an honour this is, that the mother of my Lord should visit me! When you came in and greeted me, my baby jumped for joy the instant I heard your voice! You are blessed, because you believed that the Lord would do what he said." (Luke 1:39-45 NLT)
What an intriguing scene Luke opens to us! Two pregnant women. One was quite old. The other, quite young (so it is generally believed). The older woman had longed to have a child all her life and now she was pregnant. The young woman wanted to have children one day...but not today! Not now! She has yet to marry her fiancé.
For the older woman, God's work was too slow. It took a lifetime to come to pass. For the younger woman, God's work was too quick. Her lifetime had hardly begun when God began His special work in her life.
So here are two women drawn together by events and experiences that only they could share. Unique encounters that could not be explained to others. They needed each other. So Mary gravitated to Elizabeth ("hurried", "rushed") because she needed affirmation. There was no one else to whom she could talk. Not her parents. Not Joseph. It had to be someone whose life had been interrupted by God in the same way as God had done with her.Affirmation and re-assurance Mary received in full. No one but Elizabeth could appreciate the misunderstanding that lay ahead for Mary. For a childless wife (Elizabeth) suffered the same kind of community innuendo as did the unmarried mother (Mary)- even more so for the unmarried mother.
Maybe Luke would teach us today that sometimes God seems to be so slow in what He is doing in our lives. Frustratingly slow! Or maybe we relate more readily to Mary? God is "out of the blocks" before we knew that things were already under way.
Here's a question: Do you have an Elizabeth and/or a Mary in your life? A person or persons with whom you can share those experiences that the vast majority would not understand? Are you such a person for others?
I wonder how Mary would have managed without those three months she spent with Elizabeth in preparation for the birth of her own son. She must have learned so much asshe availed herself of Elizabeth's wisdom, experience and passion for the child soon to be born to her.God is on the move. After almost 400 silent years, God is on the move.
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