What Solidarity Really Looks Like

Interestingly, the first thing that Mary does when she finds that she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit is to get out of town. Scripture doesn’t explicitly say it, but it suggests that she did not want to spend time with her biological family, or even with Joseph. She wanted to go to her old cousin, Elizabeth, because she thought, “Perhaps she could understand.”

Earlier in the chapter the angel told Mary that Elizabeth was also miraculously pregnant, so perhaps that’s what motivated Mary. One way or the other, she knew she needed someone who understood, someone who would welcome her, someone who would not judge.

And that’s exactly what she got:

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! - Luke 1:39-42

Of course, Elizabeth could have been judgmental. But she wasn’t. She showed the kind of solidarity that changes a person’s future because they know they are welcomed and deeply accepted.

Take a few moments to reflect in the scene, using this description as a way to imagine what it must have been like to be Mary.

... And so, in a haze, she runs away—seeking refuge in the hill country, retreating to family who would  keep her safe and help her make sense of her world turned upside down. As soon as she falls into Elizabeth’s arms, Elizabeth knows and feels it to be true. ‘Yes, I feel it too. We are pregnant with promise. We carry this together. This is not a dream deferred. It is a dream confirmed, a dream shared. A dream that will birth joy.’ - A Dream Confirmed, by Lisle Gwynn Garrity, @sanctifiedart