Mary faced an insurmountable need. She was involved in the most significant event in the history of mankind—the virgin birth of the Messiah—and couldn’t tell anyone. After all, who would believe her? Who wouldn’t assume her story to be a lie to cover her immorality? Only one person might believe her, a relative whose old-age pregnancy was a miracle almost equal to her own. Here was a confidant who would not automatically dismiss her story. 

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A week’s journey away, in the Judean hill country, was the only potentially sympathetic ear for her good news. Here was one with the wisdom of age and a righteous life. She would not only be sympathetic; she could be a mentor to a totally inexperienced young woman given the most daunting task any mother would ever receive, the rearing of the Messiah of Israel. 

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What a relief! Not only did Elizabeth understand, but God affirmed the process through her. The angelic visitation had not been something Mary had imagined. What other response to Elizabeth’s affirmation could there be than an outburst of praise?

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Surely, Mary stayed and helped with the delivery of John. Though Luke only tells us that she stayed with Elizabeth for three months, it’s inconceivable that she would have left just before such a great family event. Now, in the last weeks of the winter months, Elizabeth and Zechariah’s child of destiny was born.

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