"Mary got up and hurried to a city in the Judean highlands. She entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. With a loud voice she blurted out, 'God has blessed you above all women, and he has blessed the child you carry. Why do I have this honor, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. Happy is she who believed that the Lord would fulfill the promises he made to her.'"
The loved ones have been separated for years by circumstance or travel or work. Since he's been gone, she's had a child and worked hard to care for her while her father's in her life from afar, wishing she could be exploring new places with him. He's seen places he never thought he would, he's met new people and eaten new foods all the while wishing he was at home eating McDonald's and watching his little girl grow up. When it's finally the day for him to come home, she and their little girl wait at the airport gate. The anticipation is great and the nerves are great and the excitement is great, though they're not sure exactly what he'll look like or how he's changed and he doesn't know how much their little girl has grown. She can't wait for him to get off the plane. He can't wait to get off that plane. Then they finally lock eyes as he walks through security...
That feeling. That feeling of looking at the one you love when you haven't seen them in months, knowing you both have so much to tell and so much love to give. Thinking of all the good times you have ahead. Re-kindling the love you have for each other. This must have been what Mary and Elizabeth felt when seeing each other again. Elizabeth's baby even jumps inside her!
Not all of us have experienced the blessing of pregnancy (or are all able to). We don't all know what it's like to have a child move inside of us, and know even less what it would be like for a child to JUMP inside of us. But we know the stomach-jumping experience we get when we see someone we love for the first time in a long time. We know butterflies in our stomachs. It's almost like the roller-coaster stomach-in-throat experience. So much joy!
And Elizabeth knew this meant something. This was a message from God. For Elizabeth the message was that God would bless the child Mary carries, the Lord. For us, the message is different. Why do we get that feeling when we see one we love after such a long separation? We are relational creatures. Remember -- God see's human and says it is not good for that human to be alone (Gen 2). It is not good for us to be alone. We are made to be in relationship with each other. We are made to be in relationship with God. We feel it when we are separated, and we feel it when we see each other again.
Our butterflies, our jumping stomachs, remind us of God's promise to us -- I will never leave you or abandon you (Hebrews 13:5). God is with us, just like God was with Mary and Elizabeth (and Mary is literally with God as she is with child and that child is Jesus). We are not alone. Even as we anticipate Jesus' birth, we remember that God has always been with us, even before the new things that God promises for us during this season. And we remember that God is with us in all those stomach-jumping moments, in all the times that we are with each other, that we are re-united, that we recognize God's great promise to us that we are not alone.
Perhaps this familiar song can remind us of what we already know that we have in God -- comfort, friendship, togetherness, home.
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