Joy

“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leapt in her womb…”

In this moment of connection between Mary and Elizabeth, this deeply embodied, energetic exchange passed between them. Something moved between them, woman to woman, child to child. That thing was so palpable that John, the baby, leapt within Elizabeth. Standing together on that threshold of Elizabeth’s house, feeling that energetic flow of Spirit connection, they felt joy.

What if joy is that energetic flow within connections, like the electrical current that connects two filaments in a lightbulb? What if joy is an energy that can flow within even those tiny, seemingly insignificant, fleeting connections that happen everyday? What if these little eddies of energetic joy that moves through us, all intertwined and entangled into life, is the gift of the Spirit to us?

And what if this current of joy, which can contain elements of sorrow too, is flickering whether we are actively aware of it or not, keeping us warm, like the way a low flame on a burner warms a pot of soup. 

Later, over meals with friends and family, Elizabeth and Mary would recount this fleeting moment—how Elizabeth felt the baby kick, and knew this baby was holy. Somewhere along the way, Luke heard this story, and decided to include it in his gospel. He takes it out of the discard pile of women’s embodied stories and gives it a place of honour, right there at the beginning of his narrative about Jesus. And that brings me joy, too:)

Deep peace and blessing,

— Anne

Rev. Anne Baxter Smith
Pastor, The Church at Southpoint