An Awakening

Luke 1:39–56 (NIV)

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!”

And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me—holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.” Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.

CONSIDER THIS

The glory of a morning sunrise is unmatched. 

As the black of night turns to the vibrant orange of a new day, it awakens us to possibility and promise. The clean slate we’ve been longing for begins to rise with the light. Advent turns to awakening and brings with it all the hope and promise of something new, in this case, something divinely new. 

As Elizabeth and Mary hear the good news of miracles unfolding before them, in them even, they get to personally experience the work of redemption God has been unfolding from the beginning. They share in the work of the world’s salvation, and as they trust God to use them in that work, they paint the sky with the rise of God’s greatest glory. 

As we mentioned yesterday, the multiplication of God’s great miracle in this Christmas story isn’t just the physical happening of an answered prayer or unexplained miracle; it’s also the extraordinary awakening to God’s presence and divine intervention in creation. The miracle of their awakening prompted the miracle of their response to it. Two incredible moments between unexpecting women and their God display the beauty of an awakened life and the miracle of God moving in his people. 

Mary and Elizabeth share a sacred, joyful exchange as Mary runs to Elizabeth to share her incredible news. We don’t know if Mary ran to Elizabeth to escape the reaction of her community or if she had a sense that Elizabeth would welcome her in difficult circumstances; either way, the glory these two women share as they process together the good thing that God has done for them is incredible. The glory of God being revealed through them is an in-breaking of glory in a whole new way. Together, they rejoice in God’s goodness and intensify the light. The light of God’s goodness and love has been revealed to them individually, but as they rejoice in it together, they intensify the evidence of God’s light. 

Elizabeth delights in witnessing Mary’s miracle, and Mary rejoices in God’s goodness revealed in personal and powerful ways to her and in personal and powerful ways for his people. But the awakening in this passage that causes my heart to sing is the simple reference to Elizabeth’s awareness of what God was doing. The text says that when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting and the baby in her womb leaped, she was filled with the Holy Spirit. 

Did you catch it? 

She was filled with the Holy Spirit. 

She recognized the gift of the Messiah’s coming in Mary, and because of her willing sight, she received the filling of the Holy Spirit, God’s indwelling presence himself, alive in her before an outpouring of the Spirit had been offered to creation. Until this moment, the Holy Spirit had hovered over the waters of creation, it had led God’s people with cloud and fire, and it had, on occasion, filled the mouths of the prophets with words that could only come from him. 

And yet, hundreds of years after silence from God, generations from God moving his people and forming creation from chaos, an old, barren woman experienced the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit before anyone else. Two women, set apart as bearers of the Spirit of God and the incarnation of Christ. And though the miracle of Elizabeth’s filling and Mary’s expression of glory was God’s doing, the reception of it was dependent on their ability to see the light and choose to participate in it. 

This Advent, God’s light is miraculously breaking in, and his glory is dawning on the world regardless of our participation in it. Our willingness to participate in it, to enter in, to recognize God’s glory when it rises on us, may just mean the opportunity to receive the indwelling presence and power of God that awakens us to the fullness of what he’s doing and causes us to rejoice in its reality. And amazingly enough, this filling, this indwelling, is only a taste of the light and glory still to come. Amazing.

THE PRAYER

How incredible, how majestic is the radiance of your glory, especially in the unexpected moments of revelation where your presence and power is revealed in two unassuming women, a striking statement of the way you lift the lowly. With joyful desperation, we pray for eyes to see your glory breaking in and to receive more and more of your fullness alive in us. Where we are asleep, looking away from the light, awaken us. Where we are already awakened, awaken us more fully—since you are so much more than we could imagine. Like the baby leaped in Elizabeth’s womb, may your Spirit leap into life in new and powerful ways in us, dispelling all darkness, and pointing us to the light of your coming. Amen.

THE QUESTION

What does it mean to you that the miraculous moments of life began in such unexpected ways? As you anticipate the coming of Christ, breaking in at Christmas, where are you experiencing the fullness of the Spirit working even before? And where might you share the glory of what God’s doing in you with someone else—to intensify his light? 

For the Awakening,
Sarah Wanck

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