“When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She called out with a loud voice, and said, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! Why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the voice of your greeting came into my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy! Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of the things which have been spoken to her from the Lord!"”
Think about where Mary went first.
She had just been told something that nobody in Nazareth would believe. She could not explain it to her parents or to Joseph. So she traveled to the hill country, days of walking, to see one person she thought might understand: an old relative who was in the middle of her own impossible pregnancy.
And Elizabeth does not need convincing. Before Mary explains anything, Elizabeth calls out a blessing over her.
Here is what makes it remarkable. Elizabeth had waited her whole life for a child, and had lived with the shame that came with being barren in that culture. She finally gets her miracle, and then this young relative shows up carrying a greater one. Elizabeth's son would be the one who prepares the way for Mary's son. If anyone had grounds for a complicated feeling, it was her.
Instead she is full of joy. Not performed joy. The baby jumps and she shouts.
That is rarer than it should be. Someone else gets the thing you have been asking for, and you say the right words while something sours underneath. Celebrating another person's blessing when your own prayer is still unanswered is one of the truest tests of a heart.
And notice what she blesses Mary for. Not her situation. Her faith. Blessed is she who believed. Elizabeth names the thing in Mary that nobody else could see yet.
We all need one person like that in the waiting. And we can be one.
Talk About It Together
Think of actual people as you answer, not ideas.
- Who has been an Elizabeth to you, glad for you when it counted?
- Is there someone whose good news is hard for you to celebrate right now?
- Who could you encourage this week by naming something good you see in them?
Tonight’s Challenge
Call or text someone whose good news you have not properly celebrated, and celebrate it.
Prayer
Lord, thank You for people who are genuinely glad for us. Take the envy out of us where someone else received what we are still waiting for. Make us quick to bless and slow to compare. Give us eyes to see the good in others and the words to say it. Amen.