LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Two Children
In the first two chapters of the Gospel of Luke, the supernatural circumstances in which two children were born are narrated. For those who knew them when they were little, they were apparently just two children; yet behind them was the expectation of thousands of years, the attention of innumerable ancient prophecies, and, even more, the realization in the world of God's eternal purpose.
They were relatives as to meat; yet they were very different in dignity. One was a chosen child; the other was a special Child. However, at his birth, the chosen child was surrounded by greater human honor than the special Child. The inferior was born with greater dignity than the greater.
The mother of the older one –so young– did not have the rank of the older mother of the younger one. (She was a descendant of Aaron, the family of priests). Her father according to the flesh was a rustic carpenter, not a respected priest who could minister in the temple. His city was not the metropolis (Jerusalem) but an obscure village in Galilee.
It was the young mother, after she had conceived, who ran to meet the old woman in that mountain city. The eldest went to the youngest. Shortly before her Child was born, she had to walk many kilometers to go to her ancestral city. And although Bethlehem was such a beloved village, when her Child was born, no house was opened for her.
However, the dignity that that young maiden and her Child did not find on earth was granted to them by God from heaven. It was on the young woman that the Holy Spirit descended to engender the Child in her, and not on the old woman. Then, it was when Mary arrived at the old woman's house that she was filled with the Holy Spirit, and her child jumped into her womb. Later, it was the young woman who received the shepherds with her story of angels, and who received those wise men from the East with gifts for her Child.
Finally, when the father of that other child recovered his speech, it was this Child he spoke of first, not his son, acknowledging that the youngest son was the eldest, not only older than his son, but older than himself, and greater than all men, though still a little Child.