I was watching I Love Lucy last night. Oh, how I love that show. I was watching one of the very first episodes where Lucy and Ethel are convinced their hubbies are about to be drafted... so they start knitting them going away presents. Hilarious... and so so sweet!
I sometimes get in "old movie" mode, where I just want to watch the classics. Most often they include I Love Lucy (or The Brady Bunch) re-runs and a pile of my favorite Hershey's kisses (the peppermint ones that come out at Christmas time. Oh YUM!). However, no I Love Lucy marathon would be complete without a nod to Ethel, the fictitious Lucy's closest friend, dearest confidant, and greatest accomplice.
That's what I'm thankful for today: Best Friends.
Lucy and Ethel, Scarlet and Melanie, Lorelai and Sookie, Peyton and Brooke, Thelma and Louise, Ruth and Naomi... and more recently, Aibileene and Minny. Women who were stronger, wiser, and loved deeply due to one common denominator~ her best friend. One of my favorite verses of devotion in the Old Testament isn't spoken between a man and woman in love, it's spoken between women. Ruth doesn't pledge to follow Boaz, make his people and God hers; she promises this to Naomi, her destitute mother-in-law who is throwing verbal rocks at her, trying to get Ruth to abandon her (Ruth 1:16). But Ruth stays.
Women stay, for the sake of each other. And I'm so thankful for that. Melanie opens her home and heart to Scarlett, despite her continually throwing herself at Melanie’s husband. Sookie is consistently patient with Lorelai's dramatic temperament and irrational thoughts. Brooke keeps coming back to sit and cry with Peyton, in spite of harsh words and gossip. Thelma and Louise have their fateful cliff. Aibileene and Minny together motivate an entire community of women to share their stories.
I absolutely believe that God places best friends in our lives for a beautiful purpose. Do we need friends? Perhaps not. After all, there are dozens and dozens of songs, poems, and verses about needing the love of Christ alone. He is all we truly need. However, He chooses to give us friends. Because He LOVES us. Pretty amazing.
I am so thankful for these friends. The friends that will literally force you to eat when you don't think you have the strength anymore. The friend that always, always comes back after a disagreement and tells you how much she loves you. The friend that knows the decision you'll make before you even make it. The friend that calls you forward into the person you were created to be, and speaks truth over the heart that God has so perfectly molded and formed.
In the first chapter of Luke, tucked neatly away into the nativity narrative, is a small passage I seemed to have overlooked each year when I read the Christmas story. Well, this year was different. (*side note* I realize it's November 21st. I get excited for Christmas in October. It's a miracle I waited this long to read it!) I was pouring over the miracle of Jesus' birth, there's a beautiful seven verses in which Mary leaves her home, supernaturally pregnant with Jesus, and visits her cousin, Elizabeth.
"At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
God's Word doesn't illuminate Mary's emotional state during this visit, but she is a teenage girl. Engaged yet unwed. Pregnant, yet still a virgin. Great though her faith must have been, I doubt that she was as carefree on the road to Elizabeth's as she likely was during visits prior to the angel's visit.
Mary's song, a few verses later, is, to me, one of the most beautiful in Scripture.
"And Mary said:
'My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior,
for He has been mindful
of the humble state of His servant.
From ow on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me-
holy is His name.
His mercy extends to those who fear Him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with His arm;
He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped His servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as He promises our ancestors.'"
Beautiful, right? However, I find it interesting that Mary does not break into song immediately after the angel's announcement that she is soon to be the mother of the Messiah. No. Instead, Mary, without Joseph or her parents, hurriedly travels to her cousin, Elizabeth. Elizabeth is also miraculously expecting a baby. And like Mary, Elizabeth is experiencing a type of isolation born from her pregnancy; her husband has been struck mute for his disbelief, and will not speak again until after the child is born.
The instant these women are in sight of each other, their very presence encourages the other. Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit when Mary calls out to greet her, and the baby within Elizabeth's womb leaps. I LOVE that moment. Her delight with Mary pours forth in her greeting, as Elizabeth loudly proclaims truth over her, calling Mary "the mother of my Lord" and saying, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear" (Luke 1:42, 43). And it is when she ends with, "Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill His promises to her," that Mary is able to praise her Lord for His promises to her. Perhaps up until that point, this promise seemed like a burden. I mean seriously, her fiance had intended to divorce her quietly and she was likely the recipient of public ridicule. But with Elizabeth's Holy Spirit driven words, Mary is able, in spite of and because of her circumstances, to "glorify the Lord" and "rejoice in [her] Savior."
God used another woman. Not her parents, not Joseph, not even another angel, to give the Messiah's mother a posture of praise. It is the relationship between these two women, grounded in their faith and infused with the Holy Spirit, that washes away loneliness and fear away with truth. This friendship takes each woman where she is, and points her ever closer to the Father, moves her to a place where she can see above her current circumstances to the perfect provision and abounding grace of God. This is the kind of friendship that illuminates God's fingerprints on our lives. It highlights His promises and awakens our hearts to His work within and around us. It is the model of friendship that we each so desperately need to follow; that we are called to.
Today, I am thankful for best friends that follow this model that God was so gracious to place before us.
Praying that you may have and delight in such a friend. and also that you and I would be this friend to others.
You are deeply loved,
Lyss :)
No comments:
Post a Comment