As we approach this second Sunday of Advent, we can turn to the little girl, Mary, for lessons in discipleship. In Luke’s account of Mary’s visit to her cousin, Elizabeth, we find a joyous meeting between two women, both whom were pregnant with divinely appointed sons. In Luke 1:39-45, we find Mary hurrying to Elizabeth’s house in the town of Ein Karem, close to Jerusalem, but about eighty miles from Mary’s home in Nazareth. Having received word from the angel, Gabriel, that she would give birth to the long-awaited Messiah, we can imagine that Mary was terrified. So, she sought out the only person to whom she could talk and trust.

We know from Luke 1:5-25 that Elizabeth and her husband, Zechariah, who was a priest in the temple, were expecting a miracle child in their old age. It is likel

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