Week of Joy
Joy at Christmas
Let’s pull our our Bibles and focus on some joy-filled scripture! Luke 1:39-50.
Luke 1:39-50
A few days later Mary hurried to the highlands of Judea to the town where Zacharias lived, to visit Elizabeth. At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her and she was filled with the Holy Spirit. She gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “You are favored by God above all other women, and your child is destined for God’s mightiest praise. What an honor this is, that the mother of my Lord should visit me! When you came in and greeted me, the instant I heard your voice, my baby moved in me for joy! You believed that God would do what he said; that is why he has given you this wonderful blessing.”
Mary responded, “Oh, how I praise the Lord. How I rejoice in God my Savior! For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and now generation after generation forever shall call me blest of God. For he, the mighty Holy One, has done great things to me. His mercy goes on from generation to generation, to all who reverence him.
Can you imagine Elizabeth’s reaction to Mary’s entrance? Here was Elizabeth overwhelmingly joyful at her own miracle baby being hit with the realization from the Holy Spirit that Mary was herself blessed with an even bigger miracle! “The mother of my Lord shall visit me!” I am always floored at the thought of that reunion between two expectant mothers, each carrying a miracle, each baby destined to change the world. Can you even put yourself in their shoes??
Advent Activity
Read John 1:9-18. Ponder the miracle that Mary and Elizabeth each experienced.
