In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Luke 1:26–45 (ESV)

For most nights the past few months, my wife and I have ended our days the same way. We lay in bed, Lillie reveals her pregnant belly, and we stare at it. It’s been almost eight months, and we still can’t get over the fact that there is another human’s life inside of her. More recently, we’ve gotten the extra treat of feeling our baby girl’s movements inside of Lillie’s belly. Lillie was the first to feel them, obviously. But for a while, whenever I would lay my hands on her belly, baby girl wouldn’t kick. It was as if she felt her dad’s presence and froze - which, to be clear, is not the effect I want on my daughter, but was funny in the moment. But we repeated this little game for a few weeks - baby girl would start kicking, Lillie would call me over, I’d lay my hands on her, and… nothing. Soon after, we began to be able to see Lillie’s belly move when our girl would get kicking (out of all the things they don’t tell you about in pregnancy, this is one of the wildest). It got to the point that she moved so much that I started joking that she had a little speed bag inside Lillie’s belly that she was punching all the time.

One night a couple weeks ago, I laid my hands on her belly like normal. All of a sudden, our baby girl started moving. Full on, beating down the door to get our attention type of movement. She was putting the speed bag to work inside Lillie’s belly, because she was letting my hand have it with movement. And I felt it. It’s a moment I’ll never forget.

Because of my wife’s pregnancy, I’ve found myself with greater appreciation and awareness of the pregnancy of Mary and Elizabeth. Two women who carried with them, in their real, human bodies, the Savior of the world and the human light that would go before Him. I can sense the fear, the concern, the questions, and the confusion Mary had at the beginning of the pregnancy - Lillie and I wondered similar things, and our birth wasn’t brought on by immaculate conception.

I’ve always skimmed past the interaction between Mary and Elizabeth. Mary, we see, comes and visits her relative Elizabeth, who is further along with child. Enough so that the baby’s movements can be felt. And I love what we see this baby do - he leaps in her womb, “leaped for joy,” Elizabeth says, because of who Mary was carrying. That this baby, despite being unborn in the womb, leaped for joy because he was in the presence of the Savior of the world.

Joy is difficult because it often involves a choice. I don’t always drift towards joy in my life. My schedule is often too full, my thoughts too overwhelming, and my free time spent elsewhere. Joy has to be summoned, created even. So it’s difficult to choose joy, but apparently not too difficult that it can’t be found in an unborn baby. I’m convicted by John, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb, who reminds me that despite how difficult joy can be, it can be accessed by anyone. Joy happens when we are humble, like when Elizabeth wonders how blessed she is by the presence of the mother of the Lord. It comes when we recognize the fulfillment the Lord has brought upon us at Christmas, as Elizabeth recognizes at the end of today’s passage. It happens when we, like John, recognize the presence of the Lord. In an unbelievable way, we all have access to the presence of our Lord every second of our life. Joy is always within reach when we walk with the presence of the Lord.

My wife has been a rockstar during pregnancy. The other things of life do not stop when pregnancy comes, so choosing joy in the midst of the season still has its difficulties. But when I feel or just remember Magdalene’s movements in Lillie’s belly, joy sparks inside of me. There’s something about remembering her that brings me joy in the middle of any circumstance. And I find that the same thing happens when I look to the Lord. I recall His faithfulness, His beautiful way of life, and His presence with me - and I can’t help but be filled with joy.

I think there is a lesson from leaping babies for all of us this Christmas. Joy may be hard to come by. We may not feel like leaping for joy all the time. But we will learn to leap by looking to the Lord.

Ean Snell