The Visitation

The story of the beginnings of the life of Jesus of Nazareth is both strange and wonderful. To be able to come to any understanding of the biblical text we must be able to find ourselves somewhere in the story, even if it’s just falling headlong into mystery which clearly affronts our need to know, or allowing our imaginations to run wild and dream big.

The visit of the angel Gabriel to Mary announcing the news of the conception, birth, naming & future kingship of the Son of God, and her part to play in all of it, would have been a lot to take in for a young girl who was busy getting on with her life (Luke 1 v 31-33).

Dreams and visions are like that, they arrive unannounced and take us by surprise. We all know when we feel something stirring deeply within us, and for a time we usually keep quiet about it until some kind of proof transpires which in Mary’s case would have been a few months later when she felt the child begin to move inside her and her body begin to change shape. Except that Mary had a friend who was going through her own kind of unexpected journey whose story was almost as unbelievable, so she left town for a while and stayed with Elizabeth, possibly the only other safe human who could hold her delicate disposition with honour and a shared sense of joy.

From the conception to the delivery of a dream there is always a waiting time and what we do in the wait determines the state in which we arrive. The way we position ourselves in this transition time can even determine where we arrive. And who we wait with is also critical in assuring a safe delivery of the dream.

The season of Advent is a great time to remind ourselves of our dreams, things we have had spoken to us that give us a sense of hope and grow our expectation. Hold fast to those, wait well and watch them come to fruition.

Linda Burson Swift