Friendship. A
special friendship. A friendship
among two women. Sandwiched in our Bible book with
plenty of male heroes and masculine authors even, it is refreshing to find
tender tales that shows our God is not just the author of the lives of the
Moseses, Samsons, and Davids, but also of the Ruths and Naomis, and the Mary
and Elizabeths.
Mary and Elizabeth were unlikely friends. We know that though they were related,
they were disparate in age, Mary, probably a teenager, and Elizabeth, probably
post-menopausal, old enough to be Mary’s mother. They did not even live in the same area.
But both these women were to carry the most special of
babies. Appointed dual tasks that were
both great blessings yet great responsibilities. And each was an unlikely mother. One because she was too young (not to mention a virgin), and
to the other because she was old, too old to have had any more hope that her
prayers for a child would ever be answered.
The spark that united them was two unprecedented birth
announcements…both directly from God.
Mary is told by Gabriel that Elizabeth is 6 months along. And Elizabeth, when she sees Mary,
calls her the “mother of my Lord”.
She knew…divinely. And in
the moment when Elizabeth embraced Mary with joy, a unique friendship began.
It isn’t hard to imagine what Mary must have been thinking
on her journey to see her cousin.
An angel had just told her she was pregnant. And she was a virgin.
And she was engaged. Certainly
she was worrying about how she would reconcile this to her parents and to her
fiancé. I’m sure the trip to Judea
to see Elizabeth was a welcome respite to delay the inevitable day the news
would break and her scandalous pregnancy discovered.
When she saw Elizabeth, how wondrously comforting it must
have been to not have to explain to her cousin the mystery of an angel’s
visitation, and to avoid what would have certainly been an awkward “I’m-pregnant-by-divine-power”
story. And imagine what relief it
must have been to have this miracle once again reconfirmed by Elizabeth and
unborn John’s cheerful greeting.
Certainly the weight of the destiny of their children must
have weighed heavy on their hearts.
I wonder if they had discussions over washing breakfast dishes about how
the prophecies would be fulfilled in each of their sons. Perhaps they were too bewildered to
even think that way, but certainly, if they did ever entertain such
imaginations, it would have been easy to confide in the other.
How precious that God would have provided in such an
intimate, practical, and feminine way! Their friendship must have been a balm
to the worry, anxiety, and isolation that both of them felt. In reality, there weren’t many of
Elizabeth’s friends still changing diapers. To have someone to talk to during her last trimester
(remember, her husband was very quiet, and likely frustrated, shall we infer,
without knowing if he would ever speak a word again) must have been a welcome
reprieve.
And Mary’s friends were young teenagers, still in the
carefree innocence of their youth, while Mary’s heart was anything but
carefree. Having this oasis of
this time with Elizabeth must have nourished her soul for the long journey she
had ahead of her. To be able to
simply be happy about the life growing within her before having to face the dread
some task of disclosing it to her parents and to Joseph, what a gift! To be able to see baby John and hear
his cry, and see the miracle of Zachariah’s voice restored, how heartening! These events emboldened her faith, and
gave her courage to face what seemed an impossible task.
When our God wrote out the checklist for the birth of His
Immanuel, He had several angelic visitations, a choir of the heavenly host, a perfectly-timed
empire-wide tax decree, an inn without vacancy, an stable with a manger,
visitations from far away visitors (complete with a perfect three-part gift
list), a giant star, an angry king, the list goes on. But he also had one more thing on his list, a special
friendship for two otherwise ordinary women.
I love a God who knows how to satisfy our deepest need in
ways that we cannot possibly expect.
A God who doesn’t just show up with angelic revelations and heavenly
choirs, but with soothing comforts of the gift of just having a best friend. I love that my God does not just know
the heart of man, but the heart of a woman
as well.
