Luke tells us that “at that time Mary got ready and hurried” to where Elizabeth and Zechariah lived. Wouldn’t you have loved to have been there, as the old woman Elizabeth (with John the Baptist in her womb) welcomed the girl Mary who was carrying the long-awaited Messiah inside her young virgin body?
Elizabeth had heard the rumors, the gossip. Not married but pregnant? Hard to believe. But given the circumstances surrounding her own pregnancy, she was probably more inclined to believe Mary’s story. Nothing is impossible with God, but a virgin conceiving….
And then that amazing encounter. John, with his newly formed ears, leaped in the womb of his Spirit-filled mother exclaimed, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear…blessed is she who had believed that the lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
What did Mary do? She broke out in worship, that’s what. And in a few lines of poetry, she told of God’s purposes in redemption, including the part she would play in history. This Sunday as we reflect on the “Magnificat,” may Mary’s song become our song, as the Holy Spirit awaken praise in us. Like Mary, may God’s purposes and plans cause worship to spring up in our hearts as well.