The full story of Elizabeth can be found in Luke 1:5-80.
She’s busy preparing the evening meal when she hears a wagon coming up the path. Could it be Zechariah already? she wonders. But she’s not expecting her husband home for a few more hours yet. She dusts the flour from her hands and goes over to the front window.
The wagon is small, driven by a man she doesn’t recognize. A slight panic starts to build in her chest. She’s not used to taking strange visitors, especially when Zechariah isn’t here.
The driver halts the horses just outside her front door. He gets out, walks around to the back of the wagon, and helps someone—a girl, she can see now—step down onto the dirt.
As soon as the girl rounds the corner, Elizabeth’s heart fills with joy. “Mary!” She runs to greet her cousin, sweaty and covered in dust from the journey, but wearing a shy smile.
“My dear cousin,” Mary says. “Elizabeth. It’s wonderful to see you.” She puts a hand on Elizabeth’s shoulder, and at her touch, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb seems to leap. Up to this point, she hasn’t felt him move very much, and if she’s honest, she’d started to worry about that a little bit.
She feels him now.
A warmth floods her chest, and suddenly she feels…powerful. But not a power of her own. Not a power that has anything to do with her at all. No, this is something much more mysterious. Despite the strangeness of the sensation, she isn’t afraid.
“Elizabeth?” Mary asks. She must see the odd look on Elizabeth’s face. “Are you alright?”
Right then, Elizabeth knows. Without Mary even needing to say a word, Elizabeth knows. Tears spring to her eyes, and, inexplicably, she begins laughing. “God has blessed you above all women, Mary. The child within you is blessed.” She wipes her tears. “Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me?”
“How did you know?” Mary asks. There is a tenderness on her face as she cradles her belly, which is not yet beginning to swell.
“At the sound of your voice, the baby in my womb jumped for joy,” Elizabeth says. “You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what He said.”
Mary laughs, crying herself now. “Can you believe this? You and I, with child together.”
“And me in my old age! It is a miracle only God Himself could have accomplished,” Elizabeth says. “Come inside and rest. I was just preparing dinner. Are you hungry? You are planning to stay, right? You must be starving. And exhausted! Come in, and I’ll tell you the whole story. Zechariah isn’t here, but he’ll be home in a few hours. Not that you’ll be able to say much to him.”
At that, Mary looks at Elizabeth curiously. “How come?”
Elizabeth laughs. It is so wonderful to see her cousin. Though still just a girl, she seems much older than the last time Elizabeth saw her. More self-assured, more at peace. Elizabeth knows without a shadow of a doubt that the mysterious power and warmth she felt come over her lives in Mary, too. And that the baby growing inside her is not just any baby. He is the King. The Savior. The Messiah.
“Long story,” Elizabeth says. “Let’s go inside and I’ll tell you everything.”
*
Though God didn’t choose Elizabeth to bear His Son, He recognized her as a righteous, godly woman and chose her for another very important role—to bear the man who would prepare the way for Jesus: John the Baptist.
Not only did Elizabeth receive this news with joy—“‘How kind the Lord is!’ she exclaimed. ‘He has taken away my disgrace of having no children’” (Luke 1:25 NLT)—she received it with grace and humility. She didn’t question why she hadn’t been chosen to give birth to the Messiah. She didn’t compare herself to Mary. Instead, she encouraged Mary, gave her a place to stay for the first few months of her pregnancy, and praised God that He had blessed both of them in unique but important ways.
Perhaps even more remarkably, Elizabeth was the first person to confess Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Before He’d even been born, before He’d preached a sermon or performed a miracle, Elizabeth, through the power of the Holy Spirit working in her, perceived who her cousin was carrying and blessed him.
This small section of Luke chapter 1 is the only place in the entire Bible where we get a peek into Elizabeth’s life—but what an amazing peek it is! While her story, within the physical pages of Scripture, is small, her impact on the story of the redemption of all humanity can’t be measured.
When we feel like the part we’re meant to play in furthering God’s Kingdom is small, when we feel like God’s calling other people to do more “important” things, we should remember Elizabeth. Her obedient faithfulness and loving encouragement opened up the door for God to use her in an eternally significant way. Zechariah 4:10 says, “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin” (NLT).
God sees you. He has an incredible plan for your future. No matter how small or insignificant your small beginnings seem to you now, He rejoices to see the work begin, and He rejoices in seeing it through—from here to eternity.
