The story continues...

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. (Luke 1:39-41) And 'Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you?' (1 Corinthians 3:16)

Reflection

This scene of Elizabeth being filled with the Holy Spirit may well be up there with Jesus’s baptism, Pentecost and Jesus breathing the Holy Spirit on to his disciples; each are physical and visual. They indicate a significant moment, one that marks some watershed in a story. Such filling is frequently surprising, always gracious – Elizabeth did nothing here, neither did Jesus at his baptism nor the disciples when exhaled upon! The filling with the Spirit energises us for the unique journey ahead of us. We are woken up with the reminder that we are greater than dust, more than particles. The baby moving in Elizabeth’s womb, her being filled with the Spirit and the Spirit moving in me - often at surprising moments - reminds us that God’s presence belongs within me and is no foreign object. This is the message and reminder of Christmas, underlined with a momentous birth that's just over the horizon.

Action

Recall a moment of being moved by God, filled with the Spirit. What did that signify, teach or remind you?

Andrew Hook

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