When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.
For those resigned to life in the valley of the shadow, the bright grace of the mountainside may seem to exist only in dreams.
I imagine that Elizabeth must have felt that way, in those miraculous days leading up to that very first Christmas.
God’s Word says that for five months she kept herself hidden. In seclusion. She was likely used to being alone, even in a crowded room. But this sort of solitude? Was something entirely new.
How often had she felt the shame of disgrace? A woman such as her, the wife of a priest, barren.
It’s human nature to believe there has to be a reason when life does not go according to plan. A secret sin. Some kind of shortcoming. Elizabeth must have known how people spoke of her, when she was out of earshot.
Had her grief dulled with the years? Had she long since decided that some joys were only for others? (For in truth, my own thoughts have often run that way).
But then, one day, everything changed.
“Is anything too hard for the Lord?” The angel had asked in response to her ancestor Sarah’s laughter of disbelief. Sarah’s thoughts had been filled with the weariness of grief. “After I am worn out…will I now have this pleasure?” (Gen. 18:12-14).
I imagine Elizabeth must have laughed too. That day her husband, Zechariah, returned from his service at the temple unable to speak. I imagine her nearly speechless as well, as she read the words he wrote for her eyes only.
Such similar promises the two women heard. Yet, Elizabeth expressed only wonder. Her laughter bubbled up from the kind of astonished joy that only God can produce.
Surely, she carried the angel’s promises tenderly, with deep reverence and no small amount of holy fear. Surely, she carried the babe in her womb the very same way. And in those first precious months of her pregnancy, it seems, her every thought was a whispered prayer to the One Who Sees.
“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)
This Christmas season, I hope every one of us knows the Comfort that comes from knowing God loved us so much He sent His one and only Son. And whether we find ourselves in the valley or on the bright mountainside, may we have the kind of astonished Joy that only God can produce.
For unto us is born a Savior (Isaiah 9:6). The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with Joy.
Comentarios