2000×1420. Acrylic and bleach on canvas

There is an off-the-beaten-track story in the Bible I have always found moving and compelling. Yet I have never heard a sermon expound it. It concerns two women who were cousins.

In the story they are both pregnant. But their pregnancies are mysterious – impossible. Mary is young, unmarried and, according to the story, a virgin. Elizabeth is elderly and she and her husband have never been able to have children.

Mary goes to visit her cousin. There is so much to talk about, so much to share with each other, given the obvious realities of their unfathomable, yet amazing situations. How to make sense of it all?
When Mary enters Elizabeth’s house and calls out to say hello, Elizabeth feels her baby move inside her. ‘Wow! My baby jumped for joy at the sound of Mary’s voice!’

And so I see Elizabeth putting the kettle on and the two of them, bonded by their mutual pregnancies, deeply engaged with each other and conscious of a Life beyond them that has blessed them unexpectedly with the miracle of new life.