Mary’s pregnancy and delivery are prefigured and kept in good company by her cousin Elizabeth – who’s way past her prime, and thought to be beyond her childbearing years. Was it a miracle? Or just such a stretch beyond what people knew about obstetrics back then? Elizabeth is yet one more instance of Luke’s apparent obsession with the elderly. He pays much attention to Elizabeth and Zechariah, and also Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:25-28), and others. Like Abraham hearing God’s call at age 75, or Moses at age 79 or 80, God seems unfamiliar with the concept of “retirement.” God continues to ask hard things of us, even into old age.

I love it that Luke reports that Elizabeth’s “neighbors and relatives” were with her during her pregnancy and delivery (Luke 2:57-66). Joy and also our travails are to be shared. We honor others by letting them in on our secret delights and our daunting challenges. God would never have us suffer or struggle alone.

Elizabeth displayed warm hospitality, welcoming her pregnant kinswoman into what had to have been an exceedingly small, modest home (Luke 1:39-45). Hospitality needn’t be lavish to count as hospitality. It’s that My home is your home. You’re family here. Whatever space we have is yours. Welcome! Of course, Elizabeth was welcoming not just Mary but the child within, Jesus himself – reminding us that every time we show hospitality to anyone, especially to a stranger, we are welcoming Jesus into our midst.

Elizabeth’s insight, “Blessed are you among women,” has been repeated billions of times in every place and in every language on earth as part of the recital of the Rosary – what Catholics repeat as they finger their prayer beads. She was commencing what my friend Jeremy Troxler spoke of: Elizabeth serving as “mentor” to Mary. Some mentors think they should download all their brilliance into the mentee. The best mentors listen. They encourage. They name gifts they identify in the mentee. They walk alongside. Elizabeth did all this for Mary – or perhaps they did this for one another! As Jeremy put it, “Mentoring happens when two persons empower each other to more deeply trust in the faithfulness of their common Lord.” Come to think of it, that’s what we all might be about with one another.

And they sang together, these two mothers-to-be of probably the two most important infants ever born near one another. We sing together in worship – that unusual, gorgeous activity we don’t do anyplace else. I wonder if we might sing together when at home, with family or friends – or maybe at least listen to some music together instead of it being all talk and activity. When Paul advised us on how to live with one another, he said to “clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility and patience. Bear with one another, and forgive. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell richly in you as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God” (Colossians 3:12-16).

I’ve pointed out quite a few times that Elizabeth’s newborn, John (who’ll be known as “the Baptist”), is prominently featured in the Bible’s Christmas stories – but you’ll never find him on a greeting card, ornament or yard decoration. I wonder if we could start slow and include his mother, Elizabeth. I will bet you a year’s salary that she made the short 6 mile journey to Bethlehem (with baby John in tow!) when she heard Mary had given birth. Wasn’t she as much at the manger as the shepherds, wise men, donkeys and oxen?