This post is from Moms Take Ten episode 129, Christmas Mamas–Elizabeth’s Testimony, which you can listen to wherever you listen to podcasts or at https://sites.libsyn.com/403493/christmas-mamas-elizabeths-testimony
If you head to the first chapter of the book of Luke, you will see that Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah were advanced in years and childless. One day, as Zechariah was fulfilling his priestly duties, he was chosen to enter the temple in order to burn incense to the Lord. There he was met by an angel with the good news that Elizabeth was going to have a son whose name would be John. John would be set apart for the work of the Lord from birth. This was amazing! Yet Zechariah struggled to believe what the angel said and was struck mute because of it! Lo and behold, Elizabeth did conceive just as the angel said. During her pregnancy, Elizabeth was visited by her cousin Mary, who had recently become pregnant herself. Elizabeth spoke words of life and blessing over Mary. In due time, Elizabeth gave birth to a boy whom they named John, as the angel had commanded. John fulfilled what the angel said of him and prepared the way for Jesus, the Messiah, to do his ministry.
One thing that I have thought about a lot since my children were placed in my home is timing. My husband and I had planned on having biological children first. We put in the time and effort to make that happen. We prayed about it. We asked other people to pray about it. It did not happen. I often asked “why?!” demanding answers from God regarding his plan, his timing, his goodness. It simply did not make sense to us in the moment that he would withhold such a good thing from us.
Now, as I watch my children grow up, I understand a little more. If we had conceived when we planned, we would not have been open to fostering or adoption when our children needed a home. Their mamas would have chosen someone else. God could have done that but he chose us to raise them, to be their forever family. He was able to choose us because we were in position to receive them. God’s answer to our prayer was for the birth parents, for our children, as much as it was for us.
If Elizabeth was sitting across from us, sipping tea, I think she would say something similar. God enabled her to have a child at a very specific time, and the Bible shows us how that blessed both Elizabeth and others. Specifically, how it blessed Mary, the mother of Jesus, and also her son.
When Mary was face to face with the angel Gabriel, she understandably had some questions. “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” she asked. (Luke 1:34). The angel answered her with the practicals, and then he spoke to her fear, her doubt. “And behold,” he said, “your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” (Luke 1:36-37).
There are so many examples in scripture of God doing the impossible that the angel could have referenced. He could have pointed to Sarah or Hannah. He could have reminded Mary of the Israelites crossing the parted Red Sea. He could have referenced Elijah or Daniel or Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. The Bible is full of God doing the impossible. Instead, he uses a more personal example—Mary’s own cousin. Elizabeth was someone that Mary could look at, could touch, could ask questions of. Elizabeth’s pregnancy was not a thing of the past that could be dismissed with the statement, “yeah, but that was back then.” The angel pointed to a miracle that was taking place as he was speaking with Mary to prove to Mary that God can do anything. Elizabeth’s life was highlighted so that Mary would believe. Then through Elizabeth, that belief solidified in Mary and she found the encouragement to do what was asked of her.
After the angel had visited Mary, she went to see Elizabeth. Jonathan and I did something similar when we were wrestling with infertility. We sought out the people in our lives that had seen God answer their prayer. We wanted to hear their stories in greater detail. We craved their encouragement, their confidence in the Lord. Mary had just had her life turned upside down. She suddenly found herself pregnant, though still unwed, with the Savior of the World. I think that would make any one of us seek out affirmation, encouragement, and comfort. She received it in abundance from Elizabeth.
The greeting that flowed from Elizabeth’s lips as she welcomed Mary to her home was an outpouring of the Holy Spirit inside her. Luke writes, “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped inside her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and your child will be blessed! How could this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For you see, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped for joy inside me. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill what he has spoken to her!”” (v. 41-45)
She rejoiced with Mary. She celebrated the life that Mary was carrying. She proclaimed Mary blessed over and over again.
Their interaction is so beautiful to me. Elizabeth had been waiting years for a child. She was married. Her and her husband were righteous before the Lord. God was finally answering their prayers. Then suddenly, she learned that her young, unwed cousin was miraculously pregnant, chosen by God to carry the Messiah. Yet there is not a trace of any jealousy, resentment or judgement in Elizabeth’s greeting. There is no thought of herself at all except to be humbled by Mary’s visit.
Elizabeth, by the power of the Holy Spirit, embraced the opportunity that the Lord gave her to be a testimony in Mary’s life of God’s goodness, faithfulness, and power. Her pregnancy was for her, but it was also for Mary. Her son was for her, but he was also for Mary’s child. Just as Elizabeth was positioned to be a support to Mary in her obedience to God, so Elizabeth’s child, John, was positioned to be a support to Mary’s child, Jesus. Elizabeth prepared the way for Mary and her obedience as John would prepare the way for Christ and his ministry. A humble mother raising a humble son.
Each of us are positioned to be a testimony to someone else of God’s goodness, faithfulness, and power. God wants to use us in our children’s lives as well as in the lives of those outside our home. A saved child, a physical healing, a restored relationship, an addiction overcome, a moment of patience, a gentle answer, the strength to make it through another day, each and every prayer answered, or miracle that takes place in our lives, is a torch that we can lift high to show others the way to Christ. What God does in us can also be used to encourage, comfort, correct or inspire those around us in their own walks with him. When we are willing, when we are humble, when we trust God and his timing, we will be amazed by how he uses our story in the greater story of his redemption.
Lyssa Stoyko 