41. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43. But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44. As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
This is a real story that took place at a real time with real people. There have been legends that have come throughout church history, but we must judge truth from the Bible. Soon legends begin to grow one upon another, each become more unconvincing than the previous. There are lots of legends that surround Christmas that can soon replace fact. That is why we need to go back to the text and see what really happened.
Mary and Elizabeth were real women with real emotions and real concerns. They were humble faithful women honored because God chose to visit them by His grace. During this season as we read about Mary, the mother of our Lord, let's not forget the real story.
She is not presented as almost divine. She is not pictured as a queen of heaven. Rather, she is a peasant girl. One who wonders indeed why God would choose her. Humble, willingly and joyful, she yields to the will of God. Scripture never portrays Mary as one to whom we need go for forgiveness for our sins, but rather as one who comes to God as a sinner herself in need of Savior. Her own estimate of herself is that of “the Lord's handmaid".
Real people will go and talk about usual and unusual things. Mary went with haste. With the experience that she had; she needed to tell someone. That's consistent with the real story. If you saw an angel, wouldn't you tell someone. Who are you going to tell if the word is that you will be pregnant as a virgin? Not too many. Elizabeth also had a special pregnancy from God. These women had so much to say that Mary stayed three months. That's women talk.
They can talk about pregnancies, anxieties, fears, and hopes, and dreams. It is a special time for women when they are about to deliver. There is hardly any mother that doesn't delight in talking about their children. Maybe it is bragging, maybe it is complaining, maybe it is comparing, maybe it is how much they can't keep them in clothes. Perhaps the only people that talk more about children than mothers are grandmothers. To realize the potential of this little person is fulfilling to many women who have the bulk of the responsibilities to see the child has it's needs met. A mother’s love is special.
This event is so unlike the fables and myths of that day of how deities enter the world. To begin to compare literature with reality, you will know how different this story is. For example, if you were to talk of the ancient Egyptians’ gods, you find there is no likeness to mankind at all. Usually, they are created as a combination of images to look like head of cat with the body of a man, or sphinx, or men with birds heads, or lions with bulls heads and bird wings.
When the Greeks and Romans fashioned their gods, they made them to look like men and women. Their gods had baby gods like men and women have babies. The Titans often had the elder gods enormous in size with incredible strength.
How unlike the stories of Jesus, which are filled with facts of places, taxes, and the census that can be documented. Christmas can be verified by eyewitnesses from simple to magnificent. We can read history books about Herod and his purge of Bibles. We know it's real when calendars all over reflect the birth of Jesus from which we tell time. Here is a story that shares real people. The women who were given the first news of the coming of Jesus into the world met and talked.
Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for entering the world as an infant and for sending your Holy Spirit to show us the way.
