Thoughts for the Day

Luke 1:41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 

After several days’ journey Mary arrives dusty and travel weary.  It seems likely to me that, despite being related, this perhaps no more than 15 year old wife of a builder from Galilee has never met the nearer 60 (or more) year old priest’s wife from so far away.  What goes through her mind during the journey?  Gabriel had said she would find confirmation of God’s miraculous power, but what does she really expect to gain from this visit?  There will be hospitality of a type unfamiliar to us in the UK, but what then?  Does Mary yet have the physical signs of her pregnancy or is she still taking it on trust?  Does she hesitate on the threshold before calling out her greeting?  Or is Elizabeth already there and watching as she makes her final approach?  Such, I imagine, is the backdrop to Elizabeth’s outburst that must surprise both women.

“Filled with the Holy Spirit” is one of those terms we can read across quickly without pausing to consider in any detail what it really means.  So, it’s worth taking a moment to note how it manifests in this instance (other forms of manifestation are, of course, possible!) The recorded order of events it that Elizabeth hears Mary’s greeting (nothing more), feels John leaping in her womb, is filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaims in a loud voice.   There seems no gap for Mary to have explained anything further, yet despite no outward evidence that this young girl is even pregnant, Elizabeth is confident even in the nature of the baby she is carrying.  That is the work of the Holy Spirit in her (arguably in John also!)  So too is the overflow of joy that seems to compel her to cry out loudly, “Blessed, favoured by God, are you.  Blessed, favoured by God, is the child you bear.”  And while Mary may have been wondering “Who am I to visit this lady”, Elizabeth exclaims “Why am I so favoured that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”  Such is the impact of her being filled with the Holy Spirit.

And then her final exclamation, “Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfil his promises to her”, which, of course, applies to them both.  How validating for Mary!  Indeed, how validating for them both.