The Women of Christmas: Elizabeth

 

	“‘The Lord has done this for me,’ she said. ‘In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.’”
	—Luke 1:25

Elizabeth often gets overlooked in the Christmas story. In fact, she had probably been overlooked all her adult life. Though the Bible says that she and her husband, Zechariah, were “upright people, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly,” people must have always wondered what she might have done to deserve a punishment like barrenness. She may have wondered the same thing herself.

In the Luke account, Elizabeth was “well along in years.” In our time, she might have been considered middle-aged—in her 40’s or 50’s—but well past her child-bearing years.

During a “once in a lifetime” duty as priest a few weeks before, an angel had come to Zechariah and had promised a child would be born to him and Elizabeth. Though the angel did not even come to her, she soon knew that the message the angel had brought was true.

It was during the days that followed, in the early months of the pregnancy that she became fully aware that the Lord was blessing her with a child.

Elizabeth and Zechariah must have been overjoyed. No longer would they carry the burden of childlessness. Not only that, the angel had promised that their baby would be filled with the Holy Spirit for a special duty, as recorded in Luke 1:17:

“…to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

Yet, Elizabeth must have had to grow in her faith and her trust in God during this strange and fearful period. She needed to trust what her husband shared with her, and have confidence in her God, though she didn’t understand His ways.

Then one day, Elizabeth received a visit from her relative, Mary. Mary had questions and fears even greater than those of Elizabeth. She too was pregnant, had been visited by an angel, and promised a son. As Luke 1:42 records, when Mary greeted Elizabeth, the baby in Elizabeth’s body moved in her womb, which caused Elizabeth to proclaim loudly:

“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!”

How wonderful for Mary and Elizabeth that God had uniquely scheduled these pregnancies of two women connected by family and during the same period of time. How they must have rejoiced, and prayed, and wondered about what God was doing with them and through them for His purposes.

I surmise that Mary must have returned home a different person. She left as a frightened and unsure teenager, and came home a blessed and trusting young woman. God had used Elizabeth in her life. And, the mutual encounter had been by divine appointment.

Consider how God wants to use you in another woman’s life. Has He strategically placed you together with someone He wants to bless? Perhaps He has placed you with someone in unusual, but similar, circumstances?

Look beyond your own age group. Rejoice that God engineers such encounters for you. He is the same God who arranged the blessing and strengthening of two of His choice servants. He can do the same for you!