Blessed is She Who Believed

THIS WEEK we are celebrating mothers. For most of us a mom represents a special relationship, better than a friendship, that launches us into life and gives us instruction in how to live it. A mom isn't just somebody who has given birth to somebody. That's not an easy thing to do, but the bigger challenge is to raise that person up in Christ by being an example of what it means to live by faith. That's what I got, and keep getting, from my mom. And I think that relationship is one of the greatest things God has put in this world. Earlier this week I read about a couple of moms you've probably heard of - Elizabeth and Mary. My pastor actually talked about them this morning too. They were ordinary people whom God chose to exalt because of their faithfulness to following Him. Elizabeth, mother of John the Baptist, doesn't get talked about as much as Mary, the mother of Jesus, and for obvious reasons. Mary's Son is more important than Elizabeths, as even Elizabeth could confess. But I like her a lot, and it's been a blessing to me to have her story on my mind this week. She and her husband Zacharias were something like Sarah and Abraham - really old, childless, but serving God faithfully into their old age. Luke 1:6-7 "And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and they were both well advanced in age." They wanted children. It's to be expected. But they didn't have any, and they didn't have a reason to think they would ever have any at this point. What stands out to me is that Elizabeth had quite clearly done nothing wrong to deserve this problem. This wasn't her fault. Her great achievement, which God honored, was that she and her husband served faithfully even though they weren't getting what they must have hoped and prayed for all their lives. But Elizabeth's heart was receptive to a miracle. God let this happen so that all the world would see His hand in their situation: that the son of their old age would become an important part of His plan, someone to prepare the way of the Lord. He made it a miracle. Do you know what Elizabeth said about that? She said, in Luke 1:25, "Thus the Lord has dealt with me, in the days when He looked on me, to take away my reproach among people." Her reproach was that she'd had no children. It was a flaw. A downfall. But God saw her faithfulness as His servant and as a wife, and He chose to honor the one whom others rejected. We don't get a lot of information about this lady, but we get a clear and timeless message about what it means to be a godly woman. She follows the Lord with all her heart, rain or shine, hurt or fine. She seeks Him relentlessly and glorifies Him with what He has given, and she doesn't give up when she doesn't know whether He hears. He does, and she and everyone around her will see Him honor her for her faithfulness. Her children will look at her and see what means to live by Proverbs 3:5, which says to "trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding." Mary was different from Elizabeth because she was young and engaged, not full of experience and years. She was probably in her early teen years. She probably couldn't read or write. But her heart, like Elizabeth's, was receptive to a miracle. Her great achievement was that even though she didn't fully understand what was going to happen, she knew that God is able to do what He has said He will do. If He decided,so that the world would see His grace and power, that a virgin should bear his Son, she didn't have to understand it to know He was going to do it. God knows that's hard for us to swallow. I can't imagine what it must be like to have an angel come to your house and tell you that you're suddenly going to be pregnant, and your baby is going to be God's Savior for the world. I don't know what that feels like. The look on her face must have been something to see. But God gave Gabriel some words to encourage her. (v. 37) "For with God nothing will be impossible." A godly woman looks at that big statement and owns it. She lives by the belief that God is bigger than our lack of understanding, and the impossible is something fun for Him to step right over like an ant hill. She talks like Mary talks. v. 38 "Now Mary said, 'Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.' And the angel departed from her." It's cool to me to notice what happened when Elizabeth's husband Zacharias heard the news about John, from the same angel. He didn't believe it. He had an angel standing in front of him, and he asked how he could be sure. So he was mute until the child was born, and God made him eat his words. Mary was blessed among women because she took God at His word. When Elizabeth saw Mary when she visited, the Holy Spirit filled her, and she told Mary (v.45) "Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord." My mom, and a lot of the moms in my family and my life, trust God like these ladies did. God isn't looking for perfect people with perfect lives. He wants people whose devotion to Him does not depend on their circumstances or on their ability to understand. I know that's hard for me, but I sure have a good place to look to get better at it.