Luke 1:39 “At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
Many times, when we think of John the Baptist, we picture an angry prophet condemning the Pharisees for hypocrisy, but we rarely think of John as being joyful. And yet, when Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, John leaped for joy in her womb. Elizabeth was thrilled to be pregnant! Now her shame was taken away; she was going to bear a son, and not just any little baby boy. This was the boy of whom the angel Gabriel foretold that “And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. 15 For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink. He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. 16 And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” (Luke 1:14-17, NKJV)
Zechariah was equally thrilled. Being part of a childless couple, Zechariah had heard all of the gossip. “Hmmmm, if Zechariah and Elizabeth are so righteous, why hasn’t God seen fit to give them children? They probably have some secret sin they have been hiding! Well! God knows! God sees! And God rewards the faithful!” Priests and their families are just as likely to gossip as anybody else, and over the years, Zechariah had heard it all. But now Zechariah and Elizabeth had been chosen as parents of the most important prophet since Elijah. Incredible! And even as Zechariah had to endure nine months without being able to speak, he must have rejoiced all over again every time he looked at his wife’s bulging abdomen and watched the baby move inside her.
Perhaps God has called you to do something difficult. Your family does not understand. Your neighbors gossip about you. Your colleagues at your work place think up new insults every day and mutter them as you pass by. If this is your situation, take heart and be joyful! “Where God guides, He provides,” was a favorite saying of Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission. And when God guides, He also gives joy for the journey. The journey of faith is difficult, but it is not merely a matter of grimly hanging on and begging God for things. We follow a Master who laughed and cuddled little children and who joked. Mary’s Son came to give us life more abundantly, and that includes joy.
PRAYER: Father, this morning many of us are struggling. We haven’t felt joy in so long that we have almost forgotten that there is such a thing. But you are the One who gave Zechariah and Elizabeth a baby who was joyful even in the womb. You spoke the world into existence in a joyful instant. You are a good Father who rejoices in your children. This morning, we beg you, cut off our shackles of gloom and despair. Open our eyes to see the joy that you have set before us. We thank you that you are a good Father who gives good gifts. This morning, Lord, please give us joy! Amen.
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