Day 7
Read: Luke 1:39-45
Life and adversity create strange fraternities. We feel a special kinship with those who have endured similar experiences. People who have dealt with cancer relate well with those are dealing with this disease. People who have adopted children lean in toward others who are also adopting. Family members of military servicemen bond over their shared situation.
After Mary finds out that she, though a virgin, is bearing the Son of God, what does she do? Where does she go? She is drawn to a special sorority that was forming in the Judean hills. Gabriel had told Mary that her cousin Elizabeth was also pregnant and had also experienced an angelic visit. So, pregnant Mary departs Nazareth and heads a few days’ journey south to the home of Elizabeth. Why? Most likely because these were the only two women in the world who had a pregnancy revealed by an angel of the Lord!
You can imagine young Mary dazed and confused by what was happening inside of her. Had the angel really said this child would be the “Son of the Most High?” Was this really happening? Were these events really ushering in the long-awaited Messiah to the world?
So Mary goes all this way to experience the fellowship of maybe the only other person in the world who understood. God’s grace to Mary and God’s grace to Elizabeth did not take the form of 24/7 angelic companionship. Gabriel’s visit was only for an afternoon! The day-to-day encouragement would take a far more human form: expectant mothers side-by-side with babies in their wombs.
What are you going through this Christmas season? Has your recent health diagnosis, job development, or family situation initiated you into a new fraternity or sorority that you have not chosen? “Cancer patient,” “divorcee,” “widower,” “parent of the wayward child,” “unemployed”? In this new club that you have involuntarily joined, are you looking for help, straining to see God’s grace and goodness in the eye of the storm? Well, look around. Perhaps in your new community you will find a Mary or an Elizabeth who God has graciously sent into your life to walk through this season with you. The encouragement will flow both ways, and you will be blessed if you believe the Lord through this new season.
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