Day 5 -- Elizabeth Meets Jesus (Luke 1: 5-7, 24-25, 39-45)
Walking faithfully and blamelessly before the Lord with her husband, Zacharias, Elizabeth wondered why she suffered so. She knew deep within her soul that the Lord could give her the child of her heart; yet, He hadn’t. Some days it seemed that her inner ache would destroy her. Leaving her thoughts behind her, she watched as her husband approached their home. Something was wrong. Confusion clouded his face. He looked as if the weight of the world rested completely on his shoulders. Rushing to meet him, Elizabeth soon realized that he was not the man who had left to go serve in the temple so many days ago.
Struggling to communicate, Zacharias gestured with his arms and drew pictures and words in the dirt. Little by little she was able to piece together the story of a prayer, an angel, and the promise of a son. Going inside with her husband, Elizabeth pondered the story she had just learned. Though her husband’s silence continued on, Elizabeth soon discovered for herself just what the angel meant. God had opened her barren womb! Keeping herself hidden away for a few months, she marveled at the miracle growing inside her tired, aging body, and the favor of her God upon her. Now Zacharias knew the truth of the angel’s words. The sign he’d sought turned out to be his wife’s ever-expanding middle.
When Elizabeth was in her sixth month, she received an unexpected guest, her relative Mary from Nazareth. The moment she heard Mary’s greeting from afar, the baby inside her leapt for joy. At that very moment she was filled with awe and wonder and knew instinctively that Mary was carrying the Messiah, HER Messiah. In her jubilation she cried out with a loud voice, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! How has it happened to me that the mother of my Lord would come to me?”
On that blessed day Elizabeth met her Savior whom she already believed in, and she received the Holy Spirit and was filled. Her child was also filled with the Spirit to fulfill the words of the angel. (1:15)
Are you allowing the Spirit into the “middle” of your sufferings?
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