Saturday – Feast of the Visitation

Gospel – Luke 1:39-45

Meeting the Divine

The Departing Bear

So I met my first black bear the other day!  Face to face!  Up close and personal, not even 10 feet away!  Ginger and I took a quick overnight to the Smokeys this week and we stayed over in a little cabin (very little) right near a creek!  Very quiet, very calming!  But as we were sitting on the deck, a black bear came around the corner and joined us.  I’m not sure who was more surprised – us or the bear!  We decided to cut short the encounter and race for the door!

We read today of another historic meeting, although one on a scale far beyond any chance encounter in an office.  This is the Visitation – Mary and Elizabeth meeting for the first time after their miraculous pregnancies.  Two soon to be mothers – one carrying the Saviour and the other carrying His Prophet!  Both of them fully aware of God entering their lives in a special way, giving each of them a unique role in His Plan and both of them fully trusting in Him.  And their words to each other fully reflect their faith in God, their love for each other and the goodness of the Lord.

And yet there is another first meeting happening here – Jesus and John, still in the womb, meeting each other for the first time.  And John’s reaction?  He leaps for joy!  Wow!  I have always had a wonder for this relationship between John and Jesus.  The Gospels only record one other time that they meet – at Jesus’ Baptism.  But I always wondered if they perhaps got together as children, maybe played together.  And I always wondered what their conversations would have been like!  That first meeting – full of joy and hope and love.

So perhaps we could reflect a bit today on our first meeting – our first encounter with the Lord!  Was it our First Communion?  An experience in nature – something like the Christmas Star (conjunction) that happens tonight?  Maybe it was a sad loss of a loved one or the birth of a child?  What was your first encounter with the Lord?  And as you reflect on that, consider when the next encounter will happen!   

 

 

 

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