Author’s Note: Yesterday, my husband’s sermon concerned the section of Luke chapter 1 about Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth after the angel’s declaration that she was to be the mother of the Son of God. I suddenly felt inspired to try my hand at writing the whispers between the verses of Luke’s short account of this visit. What could this have been like? So please take my very human effort into account, and let’s remember–at Christmas and always–that our greatest commands are to love God and love others.

~

Mary was tired, so very tired, but she was finally there. The small group of families that she had been travelling with had dispersed upon reaching the main square of the town, and she had made her way on her own towards her final destination. Her body ached horribly, her feet were dusty and sore, but she had made it.

As she neared the house, Mary saw a young maidservant leap up from her place by the door where she had sat sorting lentils and hurry into the house, undoubtedly to inform the owners that she was approaching. Sure enough, the girl reappeared a few moments later but not alone. With her was an older woman—much older—with an extremely pregnant belly proceeding her.

“Cousin Elizabeth?” The question was asked tentatively, Mary pausing in the courtyard.

The older woman’s brow furrowed for a second as she peered at her visitor. “Mary? Is that you?”

When the girl nodded in reply, Elizabeth’s face brightened like sunlight and she stumbled a moment, a hand flying to her belly as though to keep herself from topping over front-first. The maidservant caught her arm to steady her, but the sound that broke from Elizabeth was not one of pain. Instead, it was a laugh full of joy and welcome.

“Oh, Mary! You blessed, blessed child!” she cried, hurrying forward to gather Mary in her arms and pull her close. “Oh, my God-loved girl! I am so very glad you are here! You are the most blessed of us and so is that dear babe growing in your womb!”

She felt Mary stiffen in her arms at this proclamation and pulled back to look the girl in the face. “Oh, a woman knows, my lovely. Especially when God’s hand is involved. I mean, look at me, after all.”
Elizabeth put her hand on her own protruding belly once again, her lined and weathered face softening towards Mary.

“When I saw you, the baby in my belly leaped as though he wanted to jump right out and welcome you himself,” she laughed gently. “I know what God has planned for you, Mary, dear one. The Spirit has told me. And I am doubly blessed to have you here in my home. But what brings you here of all places, Mary? And why are you alone?”

The older woman’s face fell slightly. “Mary, where are your parents? Your mother?”

At this question, the young girl in her arms would have sunk to her knees in the dust had Elizabeth not held Mary tightly to her.

“Elizabeth, I…I had nowhere else to go,” Mary sobbed into her cousin’s shoulder. “I’d heard that you were…and I thought that…maybe you…of all people…” Her choking sobs cut her off, and Elizabeth wrapped her arms around Mary again.

“Miriam!” she then called to the maidservant nearby, “Set the table and prepare a room for my cousin Mary; she shall stay with us for as long as she needs or wants.” She kissed the girl’s forehead softly in reassurance. Heaven bless, she could not be more than fourteen, the child.

“And rouse my husband from his studies, please. His presence is required.”

Mary obediently followed Elizabeth into the house, feeling her cousin’s arm strong and warm around her shoulder. Her weary steps shuffled along with Elizabeth’s steady ones as the older woman took charge of her home. As the servants rushed about, Elizabeth busied herself with settling Mary on a low couch. Before long an older man entered the room. In his hand he carried a tablet and stylus, his clothing well-maintained and similar to the robes that Mary remembered the priests at her local synagogue wearing.

“Ah! Zachariah! There you are!”  Elizabeth smiled as her husband entered. “This is my cousin Mary from Galilee. She is going to be staying with us for a while.”

Zachariah looked long and seriously at Mary and, for a heart-stopping moment, she feared that he would immediately turn her out. Instead he raised the tablet, wrote something on it and, moving forward, held it out to Mary.

The young girl shook her head. “I cannot read, sir,” she said quietly.

The look at Zachariah’s face gentled a little and he nodded before handing the tablet to Elizabeth, who smiled.

“Zachariah asks if you would like to lie down to rest before we dine,” she told Mary, “He says that you have come a long way.”

The older man nodded again.

Mary released the breath that had been held captive in her chest. “Thank you, Cousin Zachariah,” she said softly, “It’s…it’s true then, what we have heard?”

Elizabeth laughed aloud at that. “Oh, yes, Mary! My dear love Zachariah has been settled into silence until our son comes out to greet us.” She crossed the space and handed her husband his tablet and stylus. “The Lord, blessed be His name, help our unbelief.”

Zachariah, to his credit, just smiled good-naturedly in reply. Turning, he then gestured to Miriam, who waited in the doorway, beckoning her forward.

She brought clean water and towels and, kneeling before Mary, proceeded to wash the young woman’s feet and hands, rinsing the dust of the road from her skin and applying balm to the spots rubbed sore from her sandals.

Mary exhaled a deep breath as Elizabeth sat near to her, a calm and welcoming presence. Zachariah took his own seat nearby as the servants began to lay out food on the table.

When Miriam retreated after finishing, Elizabeth then turned to Mary. “Now, my dear girl,” she said, her voice warm and kind, “Tell us everything.”

The next few hours passed quietly as Mary relayed her incredible story to Elizabeth and Zachariah. The angel’s appearance and proclamation that she was to have a child, the one to be called the Son of the Most High, as well as her father’s absolute fury and her mother’s utter dismay at her claim.

“Father stopped speaking to me, stopped acknowledging that I was even in the room. Mother, she…she has cried a great deal,” Mary said, wiping a stray tear from her cheek. “I do not know what my betrothed will do, though my brothers insist that he will set me aside. I just…I needed to get away.”

Zachariah scribbled on his tablet and showed it to the women.

“‘Do you believe what the angel has said?’” Elizabeth read.

Mary nodded. “I do. I believe in the Lord’s word, even though I do not understand it.”

Zachariah smiled, smoothed the tablet, and wrote again.

“‘Then a young Galilean girl is far wiser than I.’” Elizabeth chuckled lovingly at her husband’s riposte before turning to Mary again.

“I can understand your parents’ response, Mary, but I also know how…lonely this can be. To be in the hollow of God’s hand where others cannot see,” she said gently, lacing the girl’s fingers with her own. “Stay with us, beloved. We will take care of you. Let the Lord, blessed be His name, take care of the rest.”

Zachariah nodded and gestured for her to proceed. Mary rose from her seat, fetched the harp, and returned to sit on a low stool near them. Then, plucking the strings gently, Mary coaxed a sweet melody from the harp and, after a moment, began to sing out of the fullness of her overwhelmed heart.

“My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has been mindful
    of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
    for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
    holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
    from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
    but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
    but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
    remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
    just as he promised our ancestors.”

Mary truly had no idea where the words came from but they overflowed her soul and poured from her lips. The verbal testament to her soul-deep prayer and the faith to which she held tightly.

Then Mary smiled and, together, they continued to eat.

As they reclined and rested together after the meal, Elizabeth’s hands cradling her heavy belly, Mary suddenly wanted to offer a measure of the soothing and comfort that her cousins had so lovingly extended to her.

Seeing a small harp sitting in the corner of the room, she pointed to it. “May I?”

“I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled.”