Women of Advent ~ Elizabeth
After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. ‘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: 24-25
As a child, the days between Thanksgiving and Christmas seemed to slow to an unbearable, near slow-motion tick. Every morning was filled with anticipation for THE morning. Daily festivities designed to keep our attention diverted from the “count down calendar” (referred to by serious grown-ups as Advent), helped. A little.
There were parties and pageantry, neighborhood lightings and trimming of trees, season’s greetings from far-away family and friends, and probably best of all, music. Between Perry Como and Amy Grant, I sang my way through many Decembers.
But ever looming was the awareness that the pinnacle of the year, the day that made all 364 other days pale in their attempt at glory, was Christmas Day. Because on that day, children believe that something magnificent lies wrapped beneath the tree, hand picked just for them.
Much of the Christmas story, and our own stories, are enveloped in the belief of what is yet to come. Elizabeth waited her entire child-bearing years for a baby; when none came, she refused to accept that her advanced age could somehow limit the God she trusted. And she was right; what seemed ridiculously absurd to hope for, even to her own husband, God gave. They had a son who was “a joy and a delight; filled with the Holy Spirit from birth, in order to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” That’s pretty over-the-top, Christmas morning type magic! Or as Elizabeth put it, “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”
30 years after his birth, their son John proved to be the gift that kept on giving. “The people were waiting expectantly and were all wondering in their hearts if John might possibly be the Christ.” But he answered them, “.one more powerful than I will come.” And when He did, John beheld and baptized the literal, physical form of the most extraordinary, invisible God.
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Wonder. Possibility. Expectancy.
These are the gifts of Christmas Advent. This is how we make our days of longing count; with childlike confidence that the wonders of his love will be revealed in us, and our years of expectant waiting will one day manifest in Joy to the world and Glory to God in the highest! Our indispensable belief is this: he came as a baby, grew as a man, died as a savior, and lives as king. Our blessed assurance remains…He is coming again.
He who testifies to these things says, “Yes, I am coming soon.”
Even so, Come Lord Jesus. Revelation 22:20
~Elizabeth D.
