Doubted but Dauntless
And Mary remained with her about three months, and returned to her house. Now Elizabeth’s full time came for her to be delivered, and she brought forth a son. When her neighbors and relatives heard how the Lord had shown great mercy to her, they rejoiced with her.
-Luke 1:56-58
It was a moment of refreshing redemption for Elizabeth. The birth of her firstborn would be the end of her indignity, the casting aside of long worn shadows. The Lord had remembered her, and her community rejoiced around her.
At the same time, Mary would be making her inglorious return to Nazareth. She would steel herself against accusing arrows, her now visible womb extending to exclaim her private glory, but public shame. Descending from the mountain of consolation and sacred kinship, she would face her trial. Her purity maligned, though actually manifested. Chosen by God, chastised by men.
Both women would fight a battle for their worth. Mary affirmed by God in her youth, and despised by men thereafter. Elizabeth despised by men in her lifetime, and affirmed in her old age. A blessed sunrise, and a blessed sunset. Both would prove dauntless in their affections for their God, serving Him faithfully through each season.
There are always two stories being written, or at least that many. The stories men write, and the story God writes. Elizabeth’s neighbors had written their stories of who and what she was. Mary’s neighbors would undoubtedly do the same. How different those stories would be than the one held in the will of the Father from eternity past. Oh the secret stories He wills and only selectively reveals! Those sacred scripts hidden away in His bosom for His own delight. May we find our joy in the stories nestled there. May the stories we tell ourselves be those ones written by the Father’s good and grace-filled hand. It is when the stories we tell, align with the true story being written, we move from disconsolate to determined, doubtful to dauntless.
There is a distinction between humility and self-disparaging. One is honoring to God, and one is a form of self-pity. One fixes its gaze on Christ, the other on self.
While we are thoroughly sinful, we have also inherited the righteousness of Christ, and we are hidden in Christ with God (Col 3:3).
For the Lord takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation. Psalm 149:4
Our great deception is to write God into our stories, rather than seeing ourselves as written in God’s story. Which story are you reading?
