Devotionals by Dr. M. Craig Barnes

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. -- Luke 1:41

They made an interesting pair. Elizabeth was "getting on in years" when she became pregnant with a boy who would become John the Baptist. It was her first pregnancy after years and years of trying to have a child with her husband. By contrast, her young cousin Mary assumed she would need to have a husband before she started having babies. So it was too late for Elizabeth to have a child and too early for Mary. Unless, of course, you are God, in which case these pregnancies make perfect sense.

After the angel Gabriel announced God's miraculous intervention in Mary's life, he told her about the sacred interruption of Elizabeth's life. It's not surprising then that the Virgin headed straight to her cousin's home. In coming together, they formed the first community of Christ because they were two people gathered in his name. Three if you count John, who leaped up in Elizabeth's womb because he was so excited about the coming Savior. Much later Jesus would say that whenever two or three are gathered in his name, he would always be in their midst.

To this day whenever the community of Christ gathers, it is as a community of interrupted lives. Some of us, like Elizabeth, have discovered life isn't what we had settled for. Others, like Mary, have discovered life isn't what we had hoped for. All of us have discovered that when a Savior is in our midst, life isn't limited by our despair or our hopes.

-- Craig Barnes