Trimester

"And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Luke 1:43.

When they met, that's what the elderly Elizabeth said to her visiting cousin, the unmarried teen Mary. Each carried their first babies in their respective wombs. Elizabeth was in her third trimester, Mary in her first. Mary's would become known as Jesus, Son of God, Elizabeth's would become the prophet, John the Baptizer. Anyway. When Elizabeth first heard Mary's greeting voice, the baby in her womb jumped for joy. (That's what Elizabeth told Mary right then and there.) So Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, prophesied about her Lord and his mother, pronouncing each Blessed! (Jesus would later say of Elizabeth that no woman ever gave birth to a greater man.) Ah! But we digress. Meanwhile. The point. She said, The mother of my Lord. We've seen this before, haven't we? How is that unborn baby her Lord, an aging woman? (And how in the world did the other unborn baby recognize him?!!)

As we, brothers and sisters, receive the Word become flesh coming to us in grace and truth, we take off our shoes in wonder. We're on holy ground. We whisper, Thank you. We bow together, humbled by this incredible God who extends to us his peace offering.