The Baby Who Leaped

A young woman calls out a greeting at a doorway. Just a hello. And somewhere out of sight, a baby who has not yet been born jumps for joy.

We are in the hill country of Judah, in a town Luke does not name. This is the home of Zechariah, a priest, and his wife Elizabeth. For years they had no children, and now, in their old age, Elizabeth is six months pregnant. Zechariah cannot speak; he has been silent since the angel's visit in the temple. And up the road, after a long journey from Nazareth in Galilee, comes Mary. She is young, newly engaged, and carrying a secret only an angel has explained to her. The angel Gabriel had told her that her relative Elizabeth was expecting too. So Mary has hurried south to see her.

Mary steps into the house and greets Elizabeth. Luke tells us exactly what happened next. As soon as Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb. Not a small kick. A leap. And in that same moment, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Think about what Elizabeth knew at that point. No one had told her Mary's news. There were no letters, no messengers. Mary had barely said hello. Yet Elizabeth understood. God himself was showing her.

Elizabeth does not whisper. Luke says she cried out with a loud voice. “Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” Then her voice catches with wonder. Why is this happening to me, she asks, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? Imagine that. Elizabeth is older, married to a priest, respected. Mary is a girl from a small village in the north. And yet Elizabeth calls Mary's unborn child her Lord. She feels honoured that Mary has come to her door.

Then Elizabeth explains what she felt. As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, she says, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. That baby would grow up to be John the Baptist. Years later, he would stand by the Jordan River and point at Jesus and tell the crowds, this is the one. But here, before either child is born, John is already doing it. The first one to welcome Jesus with joy is a baby who has never seen the sun. Elizabeth then blesses Mary once more, for believing that what the Lord told her would come true.

This is not the first time the Bible notices a baby moving before birth. In Genesis, Rebekah, pregnant with twins, felt the children struggling inside her, and she went to ask the Lord what it meant. Luke's listeners knew those old stories well. Here, too, a mother feels her unborn child move and understands it as a sign. But this time it is not a struggle. It is joy. And Luke had already told us, back in chapter one, that the angel promised John would be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb.

You can read this moment in Luke chapter one, verses forty-one to forty-four. Two mothers, two unborn babies, and a house in the hills filled with joy before anyone has seen Jesus' face. So here is a question to carry with you. What is something about Jesus that makes your heart want to leap for joy?