Giving and Receiving: Advent Day 23

A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town 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, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.” (Luke 1:39–45 NLT)

After Mary found out that the Holy Spirit would conceive within her the Son of the Most High, one of the first things she did was to leave Nazareth, the village she called home, and travel south to the hill country of Judea to the home of Elizabeth and Zechariah. It’s likely that her intent was to serve as a kind of midwife during the final months of her cousin’s pregnancy, blessing Elizabeth during her most strenuous and difficult child-bearing months.

It was in this gift to Elizabeth and Zechariah—wherein she was to share in and be present for their miracle—that she would in turn be preparing for her own miracle that would deliver the Prince of Peace to us all. How is God calling you to be present today with His people so that together you might help to usher in Immanuel, the true deliverer of eternal shalom?

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