At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town
in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her
womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
In a loud voice she exclaimed:
“Blessed are you
among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby
in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his
promises to her!”
Every
year we video the same moment. When our
children turn the corner from our foyer to our kitchen, eyes focused on the
Christmas tree and the packages of joy.
Every year, one screams, two move slow trying to keep time still. One remains quiet. She breaths it in. One year, in complete silence, she bounced, literally
bounced as she entered her Christmas morning.
She
is my shy one. She is my reserved
one. When she has had to ask me hard
questions, or tells me difficult things, she has often written them down.
Her
love language is touch, because it is silent.
I
had never seen emotion burst out of her, until that Christmas morning, I had never seen joy so great it made her leap
up and down.
I
have watched that video more than once.
Joy like that is palpable. There
are times I want to scoop that joy up and ingest it whole.
I
have long paused and thought about Elizabeth.
The baby within her leaping at the presence of Jesus, unseen, unheard. Why
did God choose to share this simple transaction. A visit of two favored women, harboring
holy. Why the leap?
Mary
had not held him yet. The star of stars had
not yet hung in the sky. The angel chorus
had not yet sung glory. The shepherds
and astronomers had not yet traveled. No
one had seen, yet John, some matter of months within His mother’s womb, leapt.
Perhaps
the simple question in this tiny prologue to the greatest story is, do we?
Do
we leap?
When
we realize this life is not the end of the story.
When
we contemplate the holy becoming the most humble.
When
we embrace a perfect life sacrificed for lives unworthy.
When
we understand our loneliness is an invitation to Jesus.
When
we open our hurt to the majesty of healing.
Do
we leap? Elizabeth knew and so did her son. So two thousand years and twenty-seven
books of the Bible later, how do we not?
Christmas,
this glorious day of festival and fellowship is every day for the child that
knows Jesus.
He
is the gift that waits every morning.
He
is the answer to every prayer.
He
is the anointing oil for every wound.
He
is the friend for every heart.
He
is the joy for every sorrow.
He
is our reason to rejoice.
Keeping
Christmas in our heart; we all say it don’t we? We all want it. We all want life to stay at the pace of the
holiday so we don’t forget. We don’t want
schedule to detour our sanctuary. But it
does and it will and we forget to leap and live like people who know joy.
So
I let the pine stay on the mantel a little longer and I reread the cards from
friends a far. I ask the Holy Spirit to
remind me when I cannot remember myself.
He
gives me a reason to wake in the morning. He gives me the choice to forgive. He
allots me more joy than I can ever hold, but I must be willing to see Him in
the darkness.
I
must find Him when the lights have dimmed and life is hard. His presence is not a result of my affliction
or affection; it is and will always be a gift.
Unwrap
beloved.
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