When I think about generations of women coming together in parenting, my first thought is of two women, one much older than the other, both expecting children who would change the world: Mary and Elizabeth.
Elizabeth is “getting on in years” and her husband is silent from the time he hears the news until their son is born. Mary hears news from the angel Gabriel that she will become pregnant – she is shocked and confused. I’m sure she is also afraid.
I wish I could somehow hear their conversations, their questions and the support they offered each other. What was it like to have, in the same room, two completely surprising pregnancies with two children so destined? These women were, perhaps, the only two people who could understand what the other was going through – and they were together.
In my own life, as a parent and otherwise, the gift has always been finding someone who shares part of my story, however small a part. Regardless of age, we talk with more freedom and openness, as close to being fully understood as seems possible with another human. This is what I imagine Mary and Elizabeth, two highly favored women, felt.
This message is excerpted from “It takes a village.” by Cara Strickland in the May 2021 Gather magazine. Today we commemorate the Visit of Mary to Elizabeth.
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