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. In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!" Luke 1:39-45
Christmas intersects the sacred and the common. Nothing is more common than two pregnant women getting together to compare notes. This however was no common meeting. Both these women were with child because of the miraculous work of God. Mary carrying the very Son of God. Elizabeth, a barren woman, who in her old age would become the mother of John the Baptist.
Mary and Elizabeth were common women. Scholars have referred to the social class from which they came as "the quiet of the land." They were far from pretentious in their style of life or religion. They were devout, but quietly so. They didn't have formal religious training like the scribes and the Pharisees. Still, God chose them to do an unimaginable miracle through. In fact, Elizabeth is the first person in the New Testament who is "filled with the Holy Spirit."
These women lived in a world where women were expendable. They were powerless in a world that loved power (as it always has). They were the kind of people who wouldn't ordinarily stand out in a crowd, except perhaps for the character on their faces. They had come to an ordinary place, Elizabeth's home, to do an ordinary thing, talk. And there in the ordinary the glory of God was revealed.
We shouldn't be surprised by this. Where else would the God whose Son was born in a stable appear? God chooses to be present in the ordinary places of our world and of our lives.
So if you're wondering where to find God this Christmas, consider this, where do you expect to find Him? Christmas happens where you are. You may find God is some elaborate celebration, but if you look carefully, you'll find God enters your ordinary days.
The first Christmas was the most sacred moment in human history which came into the world in the most common way. There's no reason to think that the sacred moments of our lives won't be found in our common ways. Let us pray, that we like Elizabeth will recognize when our Lord appears and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Recent Comments