“And did you know that your cousin Elizabeth conceived a son, old as she is? Everyone called her barren, and here she is six months pregnant! Nothing, you see, is impossible with God.”
And Mary said,
Yes, I see it all now:
I’m the Lord’s maid, ready to serve.
Let it be with me
just as you say.
Then the angel left her.
Mary didn’t waste a minute. She got up and traveled to a town in Judah in the hill country, straight to Zachariah’s house, and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby in her womb leaped. She was filled with the Holy Spirit, and sang out exuberantly…(Luke 1:36-45)
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There is baby movement in the womb! Throughout my life, my mother has told me that she and I would play games when she was pregnant. I would poke her in one place, and she would move her hand there, and then I would respond with another tap (though she described it more as a ‘boom boom’). I’m confident that lady readers who have had the privilege of bearing children will be able to relate to my mom’s remembrances. I just couldn’t keep still. I was alive and active and from the sound of it, trying to either get comfortable or get some exercise?! I wish I could recall those days. My mother always spoke fondly of this, as a type of play and bonding between the two of us, even before my bald head appeared outside the comfort of her womb. I was alive in there, and I was responding.
In the midst of these Advent stories about Holy Spirit-inspired and conceived pregnancies, something special was happening in the wombs of the young lady Mary and the old lady Elizabeth. Mary got the news from the angel Gabriel of her upcoming service as the one to bear the Christ child into the world. Though it seemed impossible to fathom—how she as a virgin would conceive outside the normal means and bear a son—God backed up the message with news of what appeared to be an impossible situation on the other extreme. A lady who, it seemed, was past the age of child-bearing biological processes, had “conceived a son, old as she is.” Mary heard this news and confessed that she was “ready to serve.” After Gabriel left, Mary “didn’t waste a minute,” but went to find her cousin Elizabeth.
Something special happened when Mary arrived. We don’t know Mary’s exact words of greeting, and they may have been as simple, as “Good morning!” But whatever the content, the sound of her voice was not just heard by Elizabeth, but set off a response in Elizabeth’s baby, the one to be named John. The Scripture says, “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby in her womb leaped.”
At that moment, I can hear Elizabeth laugh, and say to Mary, “I guess you heard I’m having a baby! When you walked in, he just jumped! Ouch! I felt that! Sort of poked me right in the middle. He’s definitely alive in there, and sure as the sun rises in the east, I’m having a baby. What I’m not sure about is that I’m ready for this, but…it’s happening! Can’t wait to see the little guy. Did I tell you: The angel Gabriel gave us both the ‘gender reveal’ and ‘the naming’ all in one go? Ready or not, here we come!”
In the womb of Elizabeth is yet another testimony of the birth of the Christ child. Mary is not just any visitor to this town in the hill country of Judah. Without fanfare or parade, she walks into town as the mother of the child who would change the world.
The text doesn’t say how she knew where Elizabeth’s house was; I assume she had been there before at least a time or two. If that’s not how it happened, then a question to a passerby solved the location issue. A quick rap on the door, and in the youngster went to the happy old lady who thought her hope of such days of birthing a baby were long gone. And when Mary arrived, the one who would be known as John the Baptist couldn’t keep still in her presence. Even though he had not yet made his grand entrance outside the womb, he was responding with a leap in the amniotic fluid! This leaping baby would later introduce to any and all who would listen, “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” The mother of that Lamb had just entered the room, and Elizabeth’s baby was reflexively bouncing.
Hard to believe? With all the supernatural activity surrounding the Advent of the Christ Child, we shouldn’t be surprised. Something special is happening on so many different levels, to so many different people, it’s hard to keep up. No modern writer for TV could invent this kind of story line with all of these characters, plot twists, turns and unexpected surprises. And if they tried, theirs would, in the end, still be fiction. But this story is true. From start to finish, as hard as it may be to get our heads around.
Things are adding up quickly: Elizabeth’s birth of a baby boy will be something to behold. But Mary’s, even more so.
“Father, thank you for yet another witness of the coming of the Christ child, this time through the leaping of John the Baptist in Elizabeth’s womb. We are in awe at how you put this story together! Erase all doubt from our hearts that you were in fact the one who orchestrated these events from start to finish to present Jesus to the world.”
Freddy Boswell 