GOD’S “LOOK” UPON US
(Monday, September 18)
“Now after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived; and she hid herself five months, saying, ‘Thus the Lord has dealt with me (done to me, μοι πεποίηκεν), in the days when He looked upon me, to take away my reproach/disgrace (ὄνειδός) among people.’” (Lk 1:24-25)
As those of us on the Older Calendar celebrate the day of Sts. Zachariah and Elizabeth today, I’m thinking about how Elizabeth “hid herself” from other people for five months after she conceived. She focused at this time on the way the Lord had “looked upon” her, to take away the “disgrace” she had endured from other people, instead of rushing to be validated in their eyes. I’m reminded of the somewhat similar behavior of the Theotokos, after the Annunciation. She, too, did not rush to share her good news with others, except her relative Elizabeth; and she also noted being “looked upon” in her humble state by the Lord, along with anticipating (as something quite unusual for her) being praised by many people: “For He has looked upon the humility/lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed” (Lk 1:48). Did the Theotokos have no other friends, with whom she could share her news? Was she generally looked upon, or not looked upon at all, by other people, as perhaps inadequate or strange, because she was unlike other women (and men)?
Whatever the case may be, the holy friendship of these two women of different ages, and their focus on how God “looked upon” them, rather than how others did (or did not), can be encouraging for any one of us, who might at times feel disregarded or marginalized by others. Both these women, the elderly Elizabeth and the young Mary, focused not on the roles or places they did *not* possess in the eyes of others, but on the ones they received from God. It takes a bit of daily and hourly “work,” to keep our focus on how God sees us, especially in the age of social media, when the opinions of everyone and anyone, also about us, might always be at the tips of our fingers. It also takes a bit of work to foster our holy friendships, which God sends our way, every now and then. By the prayers of the Theotokos and St. Elizabeth, Lord, let us wake up to Your loving presence and Your “look” upon each of us today, and bless our holy friendships, whenever you send them our way.
