Why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? (Luke 1:43 NIV)

Here is a third question in Luke’s narrative surrounding the stories about the birth of Jesus.  Again, I think it is one worth asking.  Angelic appearances, visions, a pregnancy late in life, notes from a spouse rendered mute and a young cousin comes to visit with some pretty exciting, wonderful, frightening news.  Yes, even though the angel Gabriel keeps telling everyone not to be afraid, I’m sure there is a little bit of trembling going on.

Notice  the word favored is only used in the stories about Mary and Elizabeth.  Why do you suppose that is?  Here are two women whom God has favored.  One who is old and one who is young.  It’s wonderful that the Lord has taken away Elizabeth’s disgrace, and it must be very wonderful for Mary to hear Elizabeth so excited not only about her own pregnancy, but that of Mary’s as well. Potentially, Mary could be considered to be in a disgraceful state, not yet married and pregnant.  To have Elizabeth’s affirmation was certainly an incredulous thing for Mary.  Perhaps Mary went to see them because Zechariah was in the order of priests, perhaps she was sent away in order to be kept safe from harm.  We don’t know the details of this part of the story.  Did Mary and Elizabeth keep diaries?  Not that we know of, but they did talk and stories had to have been told and re-told in order for them to be written down.

Why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me?    Just hold on to that thought for a moment.  Let it sink into your heart, soul and mind.  Imagine yourself asking a similar question,

Why am I so favored that the Lord came to live in this world and touch the lives of so many people in this world with healing, hope, love, grace, forgiveness?  Why am I so favored that Jesus prayed for me before I was ever born?  Why am I so favored that the Lord has promised to give me the gift of His Holy Spirit even now, even still, while I am alive.

There is only one answer for all of us –  Because God loves us.  Because God wants us to love ourselves and one another.  Because God does not want us to perish, but to live and to live with love in our hearts, souls and mind with the strength of the Holy Spirit.  With the kind of strength the characters in the Christmas story had.

Let us pray,

Lord God, thank you for looking favorably upon all of your creation.  Upon all people, regardless of age, race or gender.  Thank you for the gift of love, the gift of having the ability to love, the gift of discernment and being able to know the difference between good and evil, right and wrong.  Thank you for your Son, Jesus, who has taught us how to love, how to live, how to forgive, how to give, and how to receive the good news of your love and grace instead of casting it aside.  Continue to give your Holy Spirit to everyone who asks, and lead us out of error into truth, out of darkness into light, out of hate into love, out of death into life that we may rejoice in all our days, our comings and our goings and all our gatherings.  AMEN