Advent
Meditation
December 3rd
11.
Family Unity
Luke
1:39-41 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.
We
have been following two stories so far, one of a child that is to be
born to an elderly couple, and one of a child who will be born to a
young girl. The elderly couple have tried
for a child throughout their lives, but with no success, until now when
God has decreed it. The young girl hasn't
even got a married partner yet but is suddenly aware that she is carrying
a baby. Two mothers, who happen to be cousins, separated by years but
joined by a common experience; they are both having a child despite
impossible circumstances. Elizabeth
has been hiding herself away in her home in the hill country of Judea
in the south. Mary lives in Nazareth
in Galilee,
to the north.
Mary's
first inclination is to go to her cousin who, she's been told, is six
months into her pregnancy. She travels south to Elizabeth and Zechariah's
home. Perhaps she simply wants to share in the joy of this couple as
they wait out their time; perhaps she wants to share with Elizabeth
all that has happened. It is a very natural
scene, two expectant mothers getting together to share their experiences.
Eventually Mary reaches their home and as she enters the building and
sees Elizabeth,
she calls out to her, and suddenly the baby in Elizabeth
leaps and Elizabeth
is filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now
if you're not sure what being filled with the Holy Spirit means, the
Bible shows us that it is an experience of the presence of the Lord
seemingly filling that person so that they are either equipped and enabled
to do something they previously were unable to do, or they were filled
with great joy. We'll see tomorrow the effect on Elizabeth.
For now all we want to do is register the fact that it happened.
Here
are two women who have both been enabled by God to have children. The
child of Elizabeth
will become the man we know as John the Baptist. The child of Mary is
Jesus. John's role was to prepare the people to be ready to meet and
receive Jesus. That's how close and significant these two women are.
At this stage they are both just marveling at what is happening to them,
and although the angel has spoken words to both Zechariah and to Mary,
it is probable that neither of them fully appreciated the full import
of what is going on. That's how life with God often is.
The
Holy Spirit enabled Mary to conceive Jesus, and the Holy Spirit now
in Elizabeth – even perhaps in John within her – stirs them mother and
child as He acknowledges The Presence within Mary. Sometimes in the
New Testament we find reference to what seem to be three persons who
make up the Godhead – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Here
it is as if the Holy Spirit welcomes Jesus as he arrives in this home.
For
much of the time these two women just go through the normal process
of confinement. It is very ordinary in that respect; millions of women
go through it every year. But in this case the presence of God is there
behind the ordinary. That's just how it so often is in life: it goes
on day by day, quite ordinarily, yet God is just there in the background,
overseeing it all. Can you catch this? Can you catch it in your life
at the present? No? You will! Carry on reading, carry on listening and
perhaps, just perhaps, you will catch a sense of God there each day,
just in the background of what you otherwise consider an ordinary life!
If
you wish to e-mail us any comment on this meditation please click here
:
tony.thomas@rochfordcc.co.uk
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