The Visit

Luke 1:39-45

Mary Visits Elizabeth

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”

Two women

One older

One younger

Sharing the moment

and the miracle of life.

Bearing within them

joy and delight

dread and foreboding 

the heights and depths

of mothering.

And sensing, in their joy and wonder

the portent of grief and despair 

as the child each is carefully nurturing

escapes the confines of the protective womb

and grows to adulthood

released into a world

that is cruel and uncaring

harsh and unfeeling

to be used and abused

by those whose cause needs evil

for its fulfilment.

Two mothers

who stand with all mothers

who witness the wounding of their children

and who bear those wounds

deep in their souls.

Wounds that will never be healed

never be eased

because they strike at the heart

of the essence of love

they cut to the core

of what gives life

they leave a gaping hole

that will never be filled.

Two women

Sharing the joy of the moment

Anticipating the grief that is to come.