This is a (fairly) well-known painting of Elisabeth greeting Mary.
What a meeting that must have been. Besides the whole I'm-pregnant-with-the-forerunner-of-Jesus-Christ- whom-you're-pregnant-with. Elisabeth went her whole life as a wonderful person, "walking in all the commandments and ordinances of God blameless." How many of us can say that? Anyone? Add to that the pain Elisabeth must have experienced her whole life in not being able to have children. She is now an old woman, possibly content and looking forward to returning soon to her Heavenly Father. Instead, her husband receives a vision of the angel Gabriel. But her husband is not able to immediately believe, and he is condemned to nine months of silence.
Can you imagine? Elisabeth is an old woman, past the years when she should be able to have a child at all. She gets pregnant, which is great, but I'm sure her pregnancy had all the same difficulties that pregnancy entails, including those unique to older women. And her husband can't talk or hear. He can't go get her pickles and ice cream in the middle of the night when she's craving it. He can't hear her rants when her feet are swollen and her back hurts and she feels ugly and fat.
In the absence of my husband, I would immediately turn to my family. But Elisabeth doesn't do this. Instead, she "hid herself five months." She hides herself away. Now, the reason for this is unclear. Perhaps she needs to hide from the faces of gossip-mongers. Perhaps she had no close friends to talk to. S. Michael Wilcox postulates that Elisabeth "retired into seclusion to prepare." She had a great task ahead of her, after all, and one that she faced primarily alone, as Zacharias could not help with the pregnancy, and died only a few years after John was born. Perhaps Elisabeth needed the time to commune with her Heavenly Father, to prepare to teach the great teacher.
Regardless of why it happened, can you imagine the relief Elisabeth felt when Mary arrived, already knowing about her cousin's pregnancy and coming to rejoice with her? Finally, someone to talk to who won't judge her! Who can understand the divine miracle that is taking place! Who is also pregnant and can share horror stories!
It's the greatest visiting teaching moment ever.
I love your perspective and insight on this sacred event.I think she must have needed some alone time with Heavenly Father. Perhaps if nothing more than to wonder what he was thinking when he gave her a baby to raise at such a late stage of her life.
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