The Women We’ve Been Waiting For: A 40-Day Devotional for Self-Care, Resilience, and Communal Flourishing (an excerpt)
In our journey of faith, we’d be wise to remember that our whole being, our whole story, is considered and cared for by the Divine. We are treasured, and we needn’t divide our loyalties to walk in the will of God; our whole self is welcome.
Mary knew this.
The years of waiting were over. The cries and anguish from all God’s creatures had not been ignored, and a redemption plan was in motion. But it wouldn’t take place without the active, embodied participation of a woman who was willing to become a mother. Neither a queen nor a duchess was chosen for the role, not a war hero or ancient celebrity. Amid political unrest, rampant poverty, and a refugee crisis in Palestine, a teenage girl from the other side of the tracks was handpicked by the Divine to carry liberation by way of her womb.
Mary’s consent to the assignment of heaven bore potential real-world ramifications of harm. First-century law stated that whether betrothed or married, those found guilty of adultery were subject to death. Never mind that sexual assault was commonplace in the ancient world, where women possessed minimal rights. Women held little bodily autonomy and were betrothed as young as twelve years old. Stories of the sexual subjugation of women are threaded throughout the Old Testament, from Hagar to Bathsheba to Tamar. Mary’s first act in defiance of this pattern was to carry a baby, and no man took advantage of her body to do so. She willingly challenged the law to mother a movement before Joseph chose to continue with their wedding plans.
Hurriedly, the Scriptures indicate, freshly pregnant Mary flees Galilee and travels roughly a hundred miles to Judah to lodge with her elder cousin Elizabeth, who, despite her advanced age, is six months into her own surprise pregnancy. Two first-time mamas, a poor teen-age girl and her geriatric cousin, are about to birth the leaders of the liberation. But before they do, we witness solidarity. One woman shows up for another.
Luke 1:39–45 reads,
A few days later Mary hurried to the hill country of Judea, to the town where Zechariah lived. She entered the house and greeted Elizabeth. At the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth’s child leaped within her, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.
Elizabeth gave a glad cry and exclaimed to Mary, “God has blessed you above all women, and your child is blessed. Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me? When I heard your greeting, the baby in my womb jumped for joy. You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.” (NLT)
Filled with the Spirit, Elizabeth doesn’t give Mary side-eye or show even a tinge of jealousy toward her younger kin, but without hesitation she exclaims, “God has blessed you above all women.”
This refrain, this blessing, spoken over iconic women in Israelite history, was extended to a lowly servant girl who was destined to fight in the resistance not with a weapon but with her womb.(1) Memorably spoken by Deborah to Jael (Judg. 5:24) after Jael secured an Israelite victory with a tent peg to the temple of the enemy, the blessing spoke of empowerment and agency against the backdrop of a patriarchal society. Theologian Kelley Nikondeha notes, “Elizabeth’s reprisal comes as a glorious twist, since Mary will embody nonviolent participation in the advent of God’s peace. And Elizabeth’s verse will add a new understanding of deliverance, opening space for women in the future to engage tumultuous times and to effect change. Everyone who heard the song’s beginning would assume they knew how it ended. But Elizabeth and Mary, under the auspices of the Spirit, understood the song as pointing in a new direction.”(2) While Deborah and Jael delivered death to usher in victory, Mary and Elizabeth would, in a reversal, usher in life to bring victory.
For the mothers of this kingdom movement, their willingness to participate in God’s grand plan was their act of resistance, and they were in it together. They had each other, their voices, and a commitment to protect the vulnerable people in their midst. Even more striking is the confidence Elizabeth’s encouragement stokes within Mary. After a show of solidarity, in which Elizabeth honors the life and role of her young cousin, Mary responds with a song—the Magnificat. Lyrics of defiance and ancient proclamations of triumph were unheard of from poor girls who held no power, yet that’s what Luke records.
Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! For he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
and from now on all generations will call me blessed.
For the Mighty One is holy,
and he has done great things for me.
He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him.
His mighty arm has done tremendous things!
He has scattered the proud and haughty ones.
He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands.
He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful.
For he made this promise to our ancestors,
to Abraham and his children forever. (Luke 1:46–55 NLT)
(1) Brittany E. Wilson, “Pugnacious Precursors and the Bearer of Peace: Jael, Judith, and Mary in Luke 1:42,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 68, no. 3 (2006): 437-38.
(2) Kelley Nikondeha, The First Advent in Palestine: Reversals, Resistance, and the Ongoing Complexity of Hope (Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2022), 62.
Content taken from The Women We’ve Been Waiting For by Tiffany Bluhm, ©2024. Used by permission of Brazos Press, a division of Baker Publishing Group.
