'When someone offers you their hand, take it' - December 23
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 93, 96; PM Psalm 148, 150; Isa. 33:17-22; Rev. 22:6-11, 18-20; Luke 1:39-48a(48b-56)
Today’s Reflection
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be* a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’ —Luke 1: 39-45
We know that Elizabeth and Mary shared some things in common: Both were unexpectedly with child. Both were stigmatized (or would be)—but in very different ways, one because she couldn’t have a child until she was older, and the other because she was having a child outside of marriage. Both were chosen by God to play a special role—to birth God’s plan for our salvation into being.
Here’s what we learn from this holy conversation, this holy visitation as it’s traditionally called. First off, it’s a holy moment of recognition. Elizabeth and Mary recognize they are sharing this strange, unexpected experience of being bearers of holy ones entrusted to them by God. It is in this holy encounter that they experience more vividly how their babies are holy and different, as John leaps in Elizabeth’s womb when he hears Mary speak.
What I think is most important to notice in this story, though, is how God guides Mary to go to her cousin Elizabeth. God has entrusted each of these women with great responsibility amidst truly strange and stressful life circumstances—but God also has given them one another to walk together down this strange and winding path.
Author Kate Bowler posted a photo on social media last year that someone had taken of her and her 6-year-old son Zach walking down a path through some woods together, holding one another’s hand. The photo was taken from behind them on the path, from a little distance behind. And the caption of the photo was simply this: “When someone offers you their hand, take it.” That photo and those words have really stuck with me—I have carried them around with me in my heart and in my mind. Ever since, I have been thinking a lot about what it means to accept someone’s hand when it’s offered—and what it means for me to offer my hand to others I encounter along life’s path.
This is the dynamic that we see at play between Mary and Elizabeth, Mary’s beloved older cousin. Mary finds herself in an unexpected and difficult situation. She doesn’t feel safe or comfortable sharing what she’s going through with the people in her own, immediate family. But suddenly she hears that still small voice of God, that gentle nudge (or even that strong push) of the Holy Spirit that what she really needs to do right now is go see Elizabeth. Even though her family doesn’t want her to leave. Even though it’s a lot of trouble to travel all the way to the town where Elizabeth and Zechariah live. But Mary steps out in faith and seeks out Elizabeth—because somehow, through the guiding of the Holy Spirit, she knows that Elizabeth is just the person she needs to be with in this strange and stressful time.
How can we connect Elizabeth and Mary’s story with our own holy conversations, our own holy friendships? We experience these same kinds of holy moments when we recognize that God has brought us into the presence of someone who shares something with us—some common life experience. We have a moment of recognition when we realize that we have walked a similar path, that we have each followed the breadcrumbs God has scattered along the path. And we discover that as we find the next breadcrumb that we have found it in this friendship and in this holy moment of conversation and common ground. When we share our emotions, our experiences, our vulnerabilities, and give them voice, these are holy conversations. And these holy conversations are moments when we find that we are, in fact, bearing the light and love of Christ into the world.
The sociologist Brene Brown defines vulnerability as the intertwining of risk, uncertainty, and emotional exposure. I know it seems paradoxical, but there is a real power to be found in this kind of vulnerability. When we shine a light into these previously dark corners of our lives, God’s love conquers what we had long believed needed to remain hidden.
Elizabeth and Mary are such a vivid reminder to us that God doesn’t intend for us to walk alone. These two women were entrusted with some of the most important and holy work that anyone has ever been entrusted with by God—to bring John the Baptist and Jesus into this world, and then to raise them up to be the people God needed them to be in order to save us all. But as this story makes so clear, Mary and Elizabeth couldn’t do this on their own. They needed each other. And God gave them one another so that they would not have to carry both these special responsibilities and these special joys alone.
Becky+
Questions for Reflection
Recall a person with whom you have shared the kind of mutual vulnerability that Elizabeth and Mary shared with one another. How did sharing your experiences openly and being present with one another in that way give you courage for what you were facing then and for what was yet to come?
Daily Challenge
Today’s reflection is an excerpt of a sermon given last year in the Season of Advent. You may listen to the full sermon here.