Celebrate!Sample

Visited To Be Visiting There is a seldom noticed yet preciously tender lesson to be found in Mary’s actions immediately following the angel’s visit announcing her role as bearer of the Christ Child. She had been told that her cousin Elizabeth was also experiencing an unusual, though different, visitation of God’s grace: that now, late in life, she was in the sixth month of pregnancy with her first child (1:36). Now, almost immediately after she has discovered that she, Mary of Nazareth, is about to become the most unique woman in history, notice how beautifully her attention turns from herself to a need where she can serve. She travels to help Elizabeth, and verse 56 says that Mary stayed with her aged relative and served her until Elizabeth’s baby was delivered. This could well become our most important Christmas lesson for this year. Mary demonstrates a principle of God’s love in action: May I be more concerned to assist the fulfillment of what the Lord is doing in another person than I am with what He is doing in me.