Birth of John and Jesus Foretold

PRAYER PRACTICE

Lectio – Read today’s passage through once. Then spend some time praying and asking God to show you what you need to pay attention to in the text. Read it again. Now ask God to help you see what this text, and the part that has stood out, may mean for you. Don’t expect to get a clear word every time but always be ready to really hear from God through His Word. 

DAILY READING

Luke 1:5-38

REFLECTION

Never Ending Story

by Diane Ward 

In the Gospel of Luke, we have the clearest picture of Jesus’ humanity.  Luke was a cultured educated writer, an artist with words. Luke was a much-loved physician. His stories reflect his wide interest in people, women, children and the sick and helpless.

My sister and I were expectant mothers at the same time. We were excited preparing for the birth of our babies. We shared the events of our nine-month journeys. Our first-borns grew together, played together and in ways were more brother and sister than cousins. During this time, I read Luke’s accounting of Jesus’ and John’s births. I was in awe of these two women, one a teenager and the other middle-aged. I thought about their challenges, Mary’s compromised social status as an un-wed mother, Mary walking the distance to Elizabeth’s home, and Elizabeth’s time of confinement living with a husband unable to speak. I pondered the mystery and miracle of both conceptions.

Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth focused on Joseph, “a man’s story. Luke’s account was a different story, “a woman’s story.”  

The humanity of Jesus is not about pregnant women spending time together. It was and is a harbinger, a foretelling of John’s and Jesus” missions, the never-ending story of God’s plan of salvation for mankind. We trust Luke’s account as it was said of him, “he was a historian of first rank.”

“Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us. Just as they were shown to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.” (Luke 1:1-4)