Contagious JoyI have always loved this passage. At the time I was expecting Moriah, I was the pianist at the small church where we were serving in Kansas City, Kansas. When she became big enough for me to feel her moving about in there, I could always feel her leaping around when I began to play the piano. She was so active when I played the piano that towards the end of the pregnancy parishioners who sat near the front could literally see the movement in my belly. Music still brings her a great deal of joy.
In this passage of Scripture, Mary comes to spend some time with Elizabeth. Her life is all topsy-turvy and she is still full of wonder at the whole idea that God could reside in her womb. Perhaps she wondered if she had imagined it all. Perhaps she questioned her sanity. I don’t know but God gave her a beautiful acknowledgment of the special bundle of Joy she carried when John leapt in his mother’s womb when Mary came into the room. I love that.
I am not carrying the Christ Child in my womb but what if others could be filled with joy because the presence of Christ was so very real in my life? What if it were so tangible it made others feel simply delighted to be near me because in being near me they felt near to God? I have met a few people like that, haven’t you? Right within our church are some prayer warriors who when I speak to them I can see that they have been spending a great deal of time in the presence of God. I want to be like that. I want others to be like John the Baptist was that day and it wasn’t because someone told him or that he had watched others do it…when he was in the presence of Christ he simply could not contain his joy.
Joy to the world! The Lord has come!
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