The Visitation
Luke 1: 39-45
In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a
city of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
In Luke’s telling, the first thing Mary does after Gabriel’s stunning announcement, is to pack a bag and head for her older cousin’s home. Elizabeth has suffered lifelong infertility, but in another miracle conception, she is now six months along with the child who will be John the Baptist. These two women have a lot to talk about, and not just anybody would understand what happens after you get a “miracle.” Often, that’s when the trouble starts!
Mary has no idea what she has said yes to, what will become of her and her child when word gets out about the father. Joseph is confused, weighing his divorce options. She can’t talk to him. And Elizabeth has no one to talk to, either. Because he did not believe the angel’s promise of his son’s birth, her husband Zechariah was struck mute by the angel. She can’t have much of a conversation with him.
The Visitation, a powerful scene painted by countless artists, is a meeting of two miracle survivors. Almost always, when God comes to us and our lives twist—sometimes wildly—in a new direction, things get worse before they get better. We’re not sure what this God-invasion means and if we can trust it. Who can we talk to? Mary shows us how to find a “spiritual friend,” someone who understands, listens, assures us we haven’t gone loco. Because in the end, walking the path of God’s direction means trusting when trusting seems foolish. And for that we need a soul friend.
Prayer: After you have surprised us with the miracle of your presence and the power of your invitation, Lord, lead us, please, to some Mary, some Elizabeth who can help us to keep saying yes. Amen.
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It’s amazing how little of the Bible I know. John the Baptist and Jesus were 6 months apart in age? I certainly understand the importance of a “spiritual friend,” which in my case is my AA sponsor (shock and awe doesn’t work with him)..or only being able to talk about crippling depression with someone who has gone through it, because it’s simply impossible to explain. And to your point going through that depression has inexplicably helped me, though I was 100% positive when actually going through it that it was the end of me.
“because it’s simply impossible to explain”–that says it best–that’s why we need someone who doesn’t need explaining.
Oh , yes, we all need a Mary or Elizabeth in our lives!
“Almost always, when God comes to us and our lives twist—sometimes wildly—in a new direction, things get worse before they get better. We’re not sure what this God-invasion means and if we can trust it.” Yes, this has certainly been my experience!
God’s way is not the way of the world of form.
Over a period of several years a bizarre story came through me incrementally. It had a beginning, a middle and an end. At a point that was probably a third of the way into the story, in those moments when the story suddenly appeared in my conscious awareness, it felt as if a shuttle was picking me up to return to a journey. A journey that I had embarked on long before it had ever showed up. In any case, I wrote what I saw appearing in my mind down.
Following is an excerpt from a lengthy preface to the story, which, by the way, I was given the title for the story – A Journey to the Space Outside.
Excerpt:
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon on the ninth day of August 2006, I had
a mystical experience. It was not my first such experience. In my life’s journey, I
have had numerous mystical experiences. That noted, I must state that it was
only in recent hindsight where I began to recognize these extraordinary
experiences as being mystical.
There’s something about a mystical experience; regardless of how unreal it may
seem or how crazy you might feel in questioning yourself about the experience, it
is not an experience that you readily forget. Mystical experiences are
unbelievable, mysterious and evade any rational explanation. I believe it is the
mystery, though, being a question in search of an answer, that sticks the
experience to the person and the person to the experience. A mystery it seems,
until it is answered, will float along in time never completely leaving one’s fringe
of awareness from where it incessantly presses to be answered.
On that Sunday afternoon in August of 06′ that I first mentioned, I was sitting in
my living room only partially aware that I was nurturing an exceptional cup of
coffee. The bulk of my awareness was deeply immersed and focused in
contemplative thought. The abrupt “download” or “upload” (I’m not really sure
which) that suddenly occurred within my mind, took me by surprise. It was as if,
through my contemplation, I had inadvertently activated a pop-up program that
had instantly usurped the object of my mental exploration.
As this experience happened, I never once felt that I, personally, was being
displaced in some way. There was a noticeable force present, but it didn’t seem
to be being directed in any specific direction. In other words, I was not being
commanded by anything to do something, nor was there any reluctance on my
part to look at the images that had so unexpectedly filled my mind’s eye. The
images I was seeing was an aggregation of recognizable experiences and
creations of my own but originating in different points in time. For a while these
different forms just sort of floated around before me, within my vicinity of thought,
like some artistic mobile that was being moved around by invisible currents of air.
The “floating” went on for a while then there was a moment when the forms
gradually began to coalesce and form into a loosely organized triangular
structure. Next, at each point of the triangle something came into view. What I
saw in that moment was, in some way, very familiar to me. And I instantly
understood the intention behind this odd occurrence (or at least seemed to
understand).
In this experience, it felt as if I had been given a mission to perform and what is
very odd, strange, weird, and surreal for me; is that, without any questioning,
protesting or hesitation at all, I obediently accepted what I had been given. It was
almost as if, nestled in the periphery of my awareness and blurred in the
background of my focus, an expectation of things to come was waiting to be
activated. Something within me had been expecting this to happen; thus, there
was no surprise that it was happening.
Thanks for taking us into that space outside, Monte.