And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
This moment is known as the Visitation. Mary — a young woman from Nazareth who has just learned she is miraculously pregnant with Jesus — travels to visit her older relative Elizabeth, who is herself miraculously pregnant after a lifetime of being unable to have children. Elizabeth's son will grow up to become John the Baptist, the man who prepares the way for Jesus' public ministry. The moment Mary arrives and calls out a greeting, Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and the baby inside her leaps. Her words express profound humility and wonder: she recognizes that the child Mary is carrying is her Lord, even before either baby has been born. "My Lord" is a title of honor and divinity — making Elizabeth the first person recorded in the New Testament to recognize who Jesus truly is.
God, give me the kind of eyes Elizabeth had — eyes that can spot what you're doing in the people around me and celebrate it without reservation. Loosen my grip on my own story long enough to truly honor someone else's. Amen.
Elizabeth had spent her life on the margins of what mattered in her culture, where a woman's inability to have children was often quietly treated as a mark of shame or disfavor. She had every reason to walk into this moment leading with her own story — her own miracle, her own long-awaited blessing. Instead, the first thing out of her mouth is wonder about someone else. Not false modesty, not a performance of graciousness. Genuine, Spirit-filled astonishment at what God is doing in the young woman standing in her doorway. Think about the last time you were genuinely, unconditionally excited about what God was doing in someone else's life — with real joy that had nothing to do with you. Elizabeth models something rare: holding your own blessings lightly enough to truly celebrate another person's. Who in your life right now is carrying something beautiful that deserves more of your wonder and less of your comparison?
What do you think enabled Elizabeth to immediately recognize Mary's child as "my Lord" — and what does that tell you about how the Holy Spirit works in unexpected moments of encounter?
When was the last time you genuinely celebrated someone else's blessing without any trace of comparison or envy — and what made that kind of pure joy possible?
Elizabeth had waited and suffered quietly for years before her own miracle came. How do you think her personal history of longing shaped her capacity to recognize and honor what God was doing in Mary?
How does Elizabeth's posture of wonder and humility challenge the way you typically enter conversations — especially with people whose lives or blessings look different from yours?
What is one specific way you could make more room this week to celebrate what God is doing in someone around you, rather than staying focused on your own waiting?
Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
John 13:13
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:11
Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
Philippians 2:3
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,
Philippians 3:8
But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
Matthew 3:14
A Psalm of David. The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool .
Psalms 110:1
And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.
John 20:28
And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me?
AMP
And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
ESV
'And how has it [happened] to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me?
NASB
But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
NIV
But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
NKJV
Why am I so honored, that the mother of my Lord should visit me?
NLT
And why am I so blessed that the mother of my Lord visits me?
MSG