Tuesday, June 23, 2009

John the Baptist - Do A Little Dance. . .

Luke 1:39-44 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. In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

Never has a verse been used more by anti-abortionists to support the fact that life begins at conception. That John could hear and feel Jesus - a fetus - in Mary's voice through his own mothers ear canal. The way we are biologically formed to live as an undeveloped baby fully relying on our mothers for literal survival, is a miracle.

I could list statistics on people who were almost aborted and now have great testimonies. I could tell stories from mother's who live a life of grief because they chose to kill their child and still struggle to get through life. However, there is something different I'd like to pull from these verses.

John knew that he was in the presence of his Savior and he let his mother know by doing the only thing he could - wiggle. Elizabeth didn't pass off John's actions by saying it was indigestion or the baby was just moving around. John let her know she was in the presence of God and she acknowledged it! If we seek God and come into His presence - we need to let people know He's there. Whether it's wiggling or stating that the only way you got through your struggle was because God gave you peace and patience to get through it - we need to let others know God is here. And if it's someone else doing the wiggling - don't excuse it away. Realize that God is in our presence and it's something to be jumping about, just like John did over 2000 years ago.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

John The Baptist - It's a Miracle!

Luke 1:23-25 When his time of service was completed, he returned home. After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. "The Lord has done this for me," she said. "In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people."

I must say, that while driving on the road, there is one thing that irritates me to no end: the lack of the appreciative hand wave. If I have taken the time to slow down to let someone in, or moved over to another lane to allow room to merge - is it so much to ask for a simple hand gesture of thanks? A wave of the hand to acknowledge the fact that I had done something nice? Not a parade in my honor, not a rolled down window and shout of thanks, not even a gracious horn honk - just a wave in my general direction. And yet, I rarely get it. It certainly makes me think twice whenever I decide to show generosity on the pavement - yet I still do.

In these verses, we are told that Elizabeth up and disappears for the first 5 months of her pregnancy. Now this is not exactly the right way to understand it. As soon as Zechariah was 'with' her, and she found out she was pregnant -she didn't run away - she secluded herself to spend these days in prayer to God. She was thanking Him for the awesome miracle that He had blessed her with. A woman in these days had a lot of weight placed on the fact that they could give their husbands a child. Not only did God bless Elizabeth with a baby, but this baby would be great in the sight of the Lord. She took the next five months to spend time with the Lord giving Him all the thanks for this miracle.

Today, thank yous seem so far and few between with one another, I can't imagine how few 'thank you's actually make it to God. Our Biblical examples show that not only was the length of the thank you inspiring - but the immediacy as well. Elizabeth didn't wait until John was born - she began praising God and thanking Him as soon as she found out she was pregnant. Is there anything - simple or miraculous - that we should be thanking God for right now?