Generation to Generation

"Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart."- Proverbs 3:3

After reading this verse I needed to find out what the metaphor for "bind them around your neck" meant. The metaphor speaks to holding on to a tight attachment to a person's outward life.  

Cousin Elizabeth's blessing for Mary leans into Mary's song and praise over her news and subsequent pregnancy. "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished." And then, Mary from childhood memory begins to recount all the ways she has learned about her Lord.

He has been mindful

He has done great things for me

His mercy extends to those who fear him

He has performed mighty deeds   

He has scattered those who are proud 

He has brought down rulers but has lifted the humble

He has filled the hungry with good things

He has helped his servant Israel remembering to be merciful

And, he has said this in the past.

In other words, He is faithful. Mary is young but old enough to have listened to the words recounted over and over again from the days of Abraham the stories of the Lord's faithfulness to her people and now Mary shares this with her cousin and together they praise God.

As I meditate upon this mornings readings what strikes me is the combination of "knowing and not knowing". Together these two woman sit and talk about their past, their present and the future. They have essentially filled their hearts and minds with the knowledge of God. It is yet unknown to each of them what their children will become. But is is good enough for them to place their trust in the God who has been faithful in the past and has shown them He is to be trusted with their futures.

If you are like me then sometimes, you can read these accounts and in your mind raise people placing them on a pedestal. Elevating them to super status.  Perhaps even think, "how special to know that God spoke to them."  But I am reminded from this passage that God is the same, "yesterday today and forever." He speaks into my life as well.

Grace is not given just to a selective group of people. If we miss this then we miss the message of the story. Each of these women walked different paths but both of them walked in the same direction,  And they walked with God. Todays reading directs our hearts and minds to the same place, the same God with a message that is just as timely for these days from the first moment the angel delivers the words to Mary.

"My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior"