Elizabeth
Mary was the first to know, to perceive, to be basked in the reflected glory of God as her child grew in the most sacred and precious feminine depths within. I wonder who was the next to perceive the glory within? Was it Elizabeth or was it her as yet unborn son? Because as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary call her name John leapt for joy.
Even through two layers of skin and flesh, amniotic fluid and uterine lining, John was able to perceive the glory of God safely encased in this young girl’s care. And he reacted, acted, danced in response to the presence of the glory of God. He didn’t need to see with his eyes. He perceived through the power of the Spirit within. He leaped and he danced with the pure joy that only the presence of the glory of God can truly inspire. It was a glory that may have been hidden from him in later life as he settles in the wilderness for so many years. But it is a glory that he soon recognises again on the banks of the River Jordan some thirty years later.
So, during this second week of Advent perhaps you could reflect on the reality for many of us that although we catch glimpses of the glory of God throughout our lives, there are many times when that glory is absent. And we wonder whether we were mistaken or whether we have been forgotten. But God’s glory is present at all times, sometimes we have to look in a new way. In the call of another human created and loved by God. In the beauty of creation, in the sounds of the singing in our churches as we journey through Advent, in the words of Scripture which recalls the glorious events which point to the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
With all my love and prayers this Advent time
Revd Sandra
Leap!
The dream
is no longer
Deferred.
So we leap!
We can’t help it!
It rises from within.
From deep, guttural places.
You can’t contain our dance!
Feel the pit-pat!
Hear the tip-tap!
That’s the rhythm of freedom.
Let the babies dance!
Let them tell us of salvation.
Let them lead us to liberation!
The babies are inviting us
into the dance of the future
on the threshold of birth.
And we will leap!
We will leap!
We will leap!
All the way there!
© Drew Jackson
God Speaks through Wombs
